A New Abomination
by White.Demon.Feathers
Summary: I don't own Teen Titans. A woman with a dark past and questionable intention shows up with a message. Will she do more harm than good by being here? Rated T for gruesome action. Please Read/Review! It's my first! OC centered. FINALLY COMPLETED!
1. An Unreunion

Teen Titans

The New Abomination

A new villain is in town, and not even the original criminals are happy with her.

At first all is safe. Raven did not aid in the destruction of the planet Earth. Her father was sealed away forever into "The Great Void" where he could never escape. She and her team, The Teen Titans, continue with the hero business as if she was never a demon.

However, Raven's father was no fool. He is always planning, always one step ahead.

The Brotherhood never happened. It sounds weird but I think it's the brotherhood's fault that the show got canceled in the first place. So, no Brotherhood of evil, no ending!

On with the show!

Chapter One : An Unreunion

My 0-2 model Firefly was not in her best condition may I warn. She had been as fickle with me as a Tamerain Princess on her wedding day since I started my journey for the Seventh Section. AKA: Earth. That may have been my ships cause for misery. Three years. Three years I tried to navigate undetected and completely incognito. As silent as a Azerath Serpent. Three long, painfully long, years. And it was so because of my shady past that did not feel like things were settled between us.

That woman- my mother- she was so strange to have kept me for so long on that blasted planet. She had wanted me trained. She wanted me prepared for what I was sent to Earth to do. Though, deep down, I think she wanted to just spend time with the child she hadn't ever known. A child sold to Rokakas to live like a thief and become the next monarch of a rag-tag race.

Well that hadn't ended well…

Stupid past. Shuddit. I don't need reminiscing to distract me right now. I'll deal with you later…

My little sister was gifted, very gifted. I read of her in the Great Library, of her abilities and her potential. I read of a very nasty little prophesy too. Just one though. Only one prophecy. And it had already come and passed. But that didn't settle that woman- my mother. She was under a very convincing influence that there was to be another prophecy that was lost to time. A prophecy that the first failed to counter and only activated when the first failed. A frail proof prophecy.

I saw the Seventh Section and sighed. Yups. A prophecy that my little sister completed and then completely demolished. That was a sight I wished I could have seen. Just one of a handful of events that my little sister handled with her team of heroes. _Hero._ Such a strange human word.

I couldn't read about the whole of her team. All the knowledge I had of them was merely what rumors I could gather. What with the wanted posters and halo-commercials around the First, Second, Forth, and Sixth Sections I did not need any unnecessary attention. No. That would do me no good. Well _Me and Mine_ anyway.

Raven was apart of that old agreement now too. Before _Me and Mine_ had been my clan of outcasts and myself. Now though- Now Raven was all there was. All I had to claim to. After the Swift War- which was nothing more than the attempt of genocide- I held nothing but my own life. I had taken so many during that cruel time that I wasn't sure my life was worth much.

The authorities say different.

They say I'm worth all kinds of worth.

Not the most encouraging feeling, although it is something to brag about to say that I hold one of the highest bounties in the First Section.

But I'm getting sidetracked again. I can't have that bounty coming to the Seventh Section. As far as _Aliena Deristrias_ is concerned, I have no bounty there and therefore if I stay within the Seventh Section's boarders I shall be held unaccountable to the bounty of other Sections. Huh. I learned more from that woman- my mother- than I thought. Life is a grand old thing.

I shook my head to clear my thinking. I needed to focus. My ship was unstable- at best- and I needed to land in an "I'm-not-here-to-kill-anyone fashion." If I processed the majicks my sister wielded I probably wouldn't have been in this mess. After leaving Azerath for fifty Cold Moons my majicks simply became locked and lost. The only way to establish my gifts, according to that woman- my, ugh! - That woman said I had to go on an unguided journey through myself to reclaim my majicks.

Something I didn't have time for. Something I really did not want to make time for. Something I planned to avoid completely in fact. Which was something that woman did not like. But she agreed with the first part. That whole time-thing, there just didn't seem to be enough of it.

She did teach me some basics. Stuff toddlers could do, or so I was told. I couldn't levitate anything but myself and I could throw inanimate objects with no real tact. Kid stuff. Child's play. Not anything to complain about, but not entirely something to praise about. They seemed to be my only parlor tricks up my sleeve, but there were certain times in the past when I could have really used some parlor tricks. Now I had only a small advantage to whatever lost prophecy I was looking for and the reunion with a younger sister I had actually never met, but something was better than nothing.

When the unstable ozone layer smashed against my unstable Firefly, I lost all warm and fuzzy thinking. It was a struggle just to keep the ship from spiraling towards a messy and instant doom. Every gauge I had was beyond capacity and I heard the sharp and vile heat of Earth's ozone attack my ship.

The horrible scratching sound of metal against metal no pilot of space wants to hear was close to unbearable. It took too long for my ears before I shut the noise out. A few repairs that would cost me more than the ship was worth could fix it. I knew it. I told myself over and over that Earth had all the basic metals I needed to get her back and running real soon. A small voice in my head asked if I'd make this one to even get the chance to fix her. I told that voice to shut it.

Seconds that felt like a Chargalean's hour hurled me through the ozone layer and all of Earth's too blue sky. A sky I couldn't even pay attention to since the expanse of desert coming at me just kept coming like there were no brakes. I did all I could to slow her down. All the resistors were out and several were ripped off like book pages. By now all the gauges were malfunctioning and the emergency alarm that signaled your time of death was buzzing in a manner so as not to be forgotten. I heard more metal screeching and then the desert was at my Firefly's belly. I maneuvered the ship with ability that only an experienced pilot could exercise.

That did not mean it was comfortable. I bounced and banged for a Morlon's Stretch. Miles and miles of desert sand traveled by me and I could take no account to it. I had more resistance opening and set brakes against the sand in hopes that friction could slow me down. I looked out of my window that was so cracked I could barely make out the new world. What I saw quite clearly though were the two mountains coming at a speed I did not appreciate. With everything out and my arsenal of stopping empty I braise myself and tried a calming mantra from that woman.

When no Death came to claim my soul, I opened my eyes and relaxed my muscles. I was alive. My ship had wedged herself between the mountains and ceased any movement. I wasn't getting her out anytime soon, but I didn't think I wanted to be inside her anytime soon. With that thought in the front of my mind, I ran to the ladder to open the hatch and get my first taste of Earth air.

It was dry and scratchy, but that didn't stop me from taking it by the lungful. It was crisp in a foreign way and I could feel a sense of beautiful freedom that I had never even come close to in my entire existence. I saw red dirt and heard a cry of a hunting bird and smelled something salty and cold and I tasted the crackle of heat form the Earth sun. It was intoxicating. It was slightly less wild than Capricorn and slightly lonelier than Sagi. A new planet that was unlike any I had ever been to.

I was so enthralled with the exciting experience than it wasn't until a green-skin young man suddenly appeared within a breath from my face. I lashed out in surprise sending him to his backside on the sand. He muttered and few words I defiantly heard but wasn't meant to. Then he got up very slowly and held his hands up, palms facing me. I think it was a signal of peace.

"Hey. I saw your plane-uh spaceship- crash. I thought you could use some help." He didn't phase it as a question and continued without my assent "I'm Beast-Boy. I'm from the Teen Titans. We did some space missions awhile back from, I think, the Third Section?" he tilted his head and I noted his pointed ears. "I don't remember. Robin paid attention to that stuff. Anyway," he stuck one of his hands out and toward me. I looked at it and then back at his green eyes. I frowned. I didn't know a thing about human edict , but what about a green human edict?

"Um, you shake it." Beast Boy offered with a reassuring smile. As if he had aliens crash through the ozone layer and landed in the most hap hazardous position possible. I looked back at the gloved hand again and hesitantly placed my palm against his. His smile gave way to a full blown grin. And he grabbed my hand tightly then pumped it up and down. I watched.

"Why do you do this?" I thought it was ridiculous. The idea that moving another arm in such a leisure manner didn't mean a thing to me, there was no ceremony to it. It was like there was no trust in the motion.

The green human tilted his head again as he looked down at me. "It's a greeting we do." The words sounded like he was remembering them from a book he read. Unfortunately he did not look like the type to read and memorize reading material, so I figured someone had made him remember it.

"So it's a greeting." I repeated thoughtfully. Then I began to pump his arm carefully up and down a few times before I let my hand fall to my side. For some reason I had the urge to wipe it off, but I withheld the feeling. It might offend him.

"Do you need help with that." He pointed to my junk-moon baby and I sighed.

"It's going to be there awhile until I figure a way to get it out of the mountains."

"You know, I bet Cyborg could handle it." the words seemed to make him incredibly happy and I wondered about that for a second. Then it clicked.

"Beast boy and Cyborg, of the Teen Titans!" I had not meant to exclaim my astonishment out loud. It was too late though and I ignored the young man's hesitant facial features. "That means I wasn't lost! That means I'm close to Raven right?" I grabbed Beast boy's shoulders and I ignored his grimace too. "Where is she? Where can I find Raven? Will you take me to her?"

"Uh." There was a pause before he just grinned again "Yeah! I know where Raven is. I'd be happy to escort you to her." I was wondering why he was grinning so much but didn't let it bother me.

When he offered me his elbow I gave him a pointed look, "And what do I do with that?" He answered by linking my arm with his. "Why?" I couldn't help it. There was so much touching involved on this planet.

"Would you prefer an alternative?"

"What's the alternative?"

His grin became mischievous and the look fitted him so well I concluded that he used this look a great deal. Then in the blink of an eye the man was a horse. I gaped. I couldn't help it. A green horse was giving a mischievous look through his eyes and I barely recognized Beast boy in them.

"Is it weird that I want to not take the alternative?" My thoughts of touching him were a mild distress programmed in to my survival instincts; riding on a stranger's back just left me feeling ill for reasons far beyond my survival, now we were talking about my sanity.

Beast Boy laughed once he returned to his human form. "Nah. This is just fine with me." He offered his arm again and I took it with very little hesitation, and he guided me away from my wrecked baby at a comfortable pace.

It gave me the perfect opportunity to watch my companion from my peripheral vision. And the sight really seemed to please me for some odd reasoning. He was very tall, that much I had noted before. His deep, forest green hair tumbled to the edges of his neck. It was shaggy and appeared soft. The kind of hair any female would want to rip his goggles off and run her fingers through forever. There were no bangs to hide any of his strong yet slim features. Hair outlined his face in two sweeping scuffs on both of his cheeks brushing his jaw, the bottom half of which seemed to be slightly jutted forward. Intelligent eyes that were darker than his hair seemed to be set forward at an object in the distance she couldn't see. There wasn't that 'far-away' look. There really must have been something there.

He looked younger than his eyes let on, but he seemed to play the boy-ish grin rather well. A very attractive human to my standards. His torso was lean like a runner, all smooth and tight muscles that were hidden behind his uniform. A sleeveless purple and black martial stretched across his chest and over his collar bone and half his neck. Sliver banded material wrapped around his forearms to his wrists and black, fingerless gloves finished the job. The rest of the uniform consisted of black and purple pants that matched the top-half with a shiny silver belt separating the two, and sliver combat boots that guarded up to his knees, where a silver pad lay on with a purple paw print of a dog-like creature. I wasn't familiar enough with Earth's animals to know for sure.

Overall though, I figured he was trustworthy enough. It had little to do with his appearance, but that was still part of the equation. Beast Boy was attractive to my standards, and he seemed comfortable enough to touch me. I wasn't big on touching, but I had a sickening feeling this planet did. A if I could warm up to the idea, then I bet I wouldn't mind Beast Boy touching me.

She smelled like adrenaline and that sweet taste some metals have, but underneath that there was something wild about her. Something that made that other part of me sing with excitement and there wasn't anything even happening. I didn't want to make it obvious that I was looking at her. That could have been rude.

Hell! That whole Alien Polite and Edict speech Raven, Starfire, and Robin feed down my throat was practically branded in my brain. I think Cyborg did some brainwashing because I could not believe I actually remembered anything they said on my own. I could barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning. I mean if the circumstance was dire and I had to answer to save my life then I bet I could remember. I wouldn't bet a lot though.

I felt something in her change. Not physically. No. It wasn't something on the outside, it was something in her emotions to tweaked somewhat. She was enjoying my company. That much was for sure. She was hesitant but she may have been from a planet that didn't touch much. But now she was looking at me trying to keep me from knowing it. She liked what she saw. I knew that much, and inside, that other me cried out in joy. It took some serious thought to reel him in. I couldn't go all _feral_ on a guest to Earth. That might just freak her out and I didn't want that.

If she was going to get her eyeful then why shouldn't I? I was taller and I could look over at her without her seeing it pretty well. She reminded me of someone I knew. That was the first thing I thought when I saw her smelling the air. To anyone else she may have just been standing there with her eyes close taking a few deep breaths. But I knew that look and the feeling. She was definitely smelling the air. I couldn't pinpoint who she reminded me of, but I didn't try too hard to figure it out. I thought I liked what I was looking at too.

Most of her body was covered with a tattered and oversized poncho like cloak of some ash color. It appeared tough and heavy and I wonder what she had done to rip it up so badly. The hood of the cloak was deep and shadowed all but her piercing, violent violet eyes. Raven's were indigo. She hit me enough times that I finally remembered that one. The woman's eyes held so much vibrant life to them. I liked them. Her pants were rather tight, but had so many pockets it was hard to tell what her shape was. But the pockets did get me wondering what she had in them.

After a while of looking her over I realized she could be a villain. But that excitement she had went she spoke about Raven seemed hard to act. Who could ever be _that _excited about the least exciting person one this planet. No, I didn't think she was a threat. Well, not right now any.

I tended to be wary of all new comers who seemed sweet at first. Terra had been like that. At first.

"You going to tell me where we are going?" Her voice cut through my thoughts and I flashed her a grin I knew most females couldn't refuse. I had gotten better at the dating game, which turned more into a game every time I played.

"I'm going to take you straight to Raven. She's at the Tower right now. At least she should be. I mean, she was there when I left." I answered. Sometimes I was sure I talked too much. I saw her nod and a frown tilted her eyebrows inward. "Everything alright?"

"What do you mean by 'everything?'" she countered after a small pause of thought.

"You seem slightly upset. It's a laid back sort of way to talk. We speak in broad terms like that." Was that even an answer?

"I see. You were trying to be subtle." She nodded again then continued. "I am not sure how she will react to me."

I stared at the young woman and I felt and odd spasm in my lower abdominals. My stomach was like on flip-flop mode or something. I swallowed with a dry throat and looked away quickly. The feeling lessened slightly. "You don't know how Raven will react? Haven't you met her before? I thought you were a friend of hers or something."

There was another small pause and I hoped I wasn't confusing her. Suddenly I wished she had chosen the alternative, "No. I have never met her. I think she might be upset to see me. I think-"

I looked at her again when she didn't continue, "You think what?"

She shook her head. "I need to speak to Raven as soon as possible."

"That would've happen had you picked the alternative." I muttered and I felt her arm stiffen in mine. Great! Good job Beast Boy! Now I offended her. How did she hear me anyway? She was slightly shorter than Starfire and that meant the top of her head barely grazed my collar bone. Maybe it was her hearing. Raven could hear almost as well as me.

Well, as well as I had been. Ever since my other half and I matured all of my senses just sky-rocketed. I could hear within a 50 mile radius in human form. I could see the Tower from the ship crash and that was pretty damn far in human form. I could taste things in the air that shouldn't have a taste, like when someone is about to have a seizure or when someone is smugly too satisfied with something evil they had just done. Dogs could sense seizures coming. Cats could just tell when a person was flat out wrong. These things I could do in my human form, in the appropriate animal form, it was all that times a couple thousands. It was really difficult at first, taking weeks to get use to the sound of people walking in Jump City when I was snugly tucked in my bed at the tower, with the window open.

Months of serious training left me knowing when to turn the high-def off and when to turn it on. And I had hated every minute of it. I went to the desert and the forest just to escape the God-awful sounds of the city. It took all this to remind myself why I hated the city and no amount of tofu in the world could or would change that outlook.

"Is that it?" She asked in a mildly cold manner to me. I inwardly cringed. I had ticked her off. Just great! She'll tell Raven who'll never let me hear the end of it! Then she'll make Robin give me another lecture about being humble. Something I do NOT want to go through a sixth time.

"Yeah. That's it. Ain't it pretty?" I tried to lighten the mood.

"It seems a bit gaudy. Only five heroes live here?" She sounded so doubtful.

"After the first couple of weeks when we started, we realized we needed more space than normal humans do. So it seems like a lot of wasted space, but we use every room for something."

She nodded again and gave me a small smile, which cause the uneasy feeling in my stomach again. I just flashed my grin at her with my eyes closed. She couldn't read them that way. I wouldn't put it past her to be able to read my soul. I knew Jericho and that was enough to set my paranoia on the defense.

I hoped that Raven didn't tare this new comer a new one, or frighten her to death with her natural tendency to be creepy. Then something occurred to me, "What is your name? Or rather, what are you called by?"

"I am called Maeve."


	2. Denial

Chapter Two : Denial: Not An Emotion She Wields

She didn't know who I was. We had never even met before this moment. That woman even said she had never mentioned a lick of me to her. So what was I expecting when I finally met Raven, my little sister? I wasn't big on touching or emotions. Maybe I was afraid she would be and everything would just get uncomfortable. Maybe deep down I wanted something to make these last three years meaningful, like it wasn't all for nothing. Oh _Siber_! I hope this wasn't just some crazy paranoia that woman had created in her mind and sent me to my oblivion! Bounty hunters didn't follow jurisdiction. I only knew that system too well. I was one at one time.

That life seemed so long ago.

Beast Boy was an odd human. His skin color did not bother me; I no longer held any confusion about it; although he was human, he was green. I had met weirder. He was different. That was something I could understand. He gradually became more subdued in our travel and I did nothing to change that. But now that I was in the Tower and facing my sister, I felt like the trip wasn't long enough.

I had killed things. Evil and innocent. I had a past that was as restless as I was. I should not have been afraid of meeting Raven. I should not. I didn't do fear. It just wasn't a part of my life. Not then, not now.

In the empty space Beast Boy filled with pointless introductions, I looked at her closely attempting to find some similarity to us. Her cape covered her entire body like mine once too tattered to do anything but swallow me not. However, her hood was down and I glanced at her features. I guess if one looked close enough there might have been something about us that was the same. The structure of our features was definitely similar. Her skin was a pale gray and her dark indigo eyes held all her emotions intact. She had a small and pointed nose that was the same of that woman. Her hair fell to her shoulders in a dull-purple, clean, straight cut. Too-long bangs feathered around her face in a way the may have been accidental. It also could have been strategically done to hide certain aspects of her face.

"I am Raven of the Teen Titians." She stated and her voice had a low husky quality that I was not sure where to place. It seemed natural by the way Beast Boy held no particular reaction to it. Was she always so depressing? There was another in the main room of the Tower with the three of us. A cyborg: Half-machine, half-well, in his case human. I had seen cyborgs of all varieties. The Second Section was full of them. Our bystander was fixing with a compartment underneath the gigantic communications device. I was not sure what he was fixing, but he seemed pretty involved in it.

"Beast Boy said you asked for me personally."

"Yes. It is about your mother." Well _that _got something out of her. And it didn't seem like it would bode well for my future. I held my ground as if I did not notice her change in demeanor. "She has ask of me specifically to warn you of a prophecy that-"

I wasn't expecting to be interrupted either. "We already took care of that nonsense!" Raven's outburst surprised Beast Boy and the third party in the corner of the room. So he was listening.

"Yes you did. But I speak of another-"

"There is no other prophecy!" Several hairline fractures appeared on the floor-to-ceiling windows framing the communications device. I raised my eyebrows at her. I wasn't sure if she could tell though, I had not taken my hood off.

"Then why did that woman send me to find you – Raven: member of the Teen Titans, the defenders of the Seventh Section's Earth? Why did I spend the last three years of my life trying to do what she said and endangering myself unnecessarily? Believe me when I say I did not travel across the Fifth Section just to have some princess tell me what I've done was for nothing!" I tried not to scream at her and it took all I had in me not to. But I was not above intimidating her to listen to me. If I could control an army of ruthless, cutthroat misfits then I sure-as-Azarath could control this girl!

When she opened her mouth to fight back I shut her up by pulling that heavy talisman out of my pack. She eyed it in a dumbfounded expression.

"Where-"

"From that woman. She is your mother. And…" I wanted to tell her. I really really did. But the words stopped in my throat. Maybe I was afraid of rejection. No- not afraid- worried, I was worried I might be rejected. It was a reasonable conclusion. I was in unidentifiable and now unwelcome territory.

Raven didn't even look like she was listening anyway, all her attention was now set on that talisman. It was a rune I never deciphered. But that woman had told me to show it to my sister and she would believe everything I said. I wasn't banking on her outlook; it just never hurts to try.

"This is my mother's." Raven stroked the golden metal with her fingers carefully. The symbol reminded me of some kind of quadruped. Of course runes were never my specialty.

"Yeah. It is. So do you believe me now?" I should try acting a bit more calm. The way our audience was watching I knew I had to watch my back. No one else was going to do it. My little sister looked at me with hard eyes. She didn't like what I was saying, but she believed me. That was all I asked for.

"What is it Rae? What's up? What is she saying? Trigon is coming back? But you kicked his butt. You locked him in that Void-thingy!" The Green human male was rather excited. He appeared flustered and was waving his arms around as he spoke. He also acted as if I was no longer apart of the conversation, speaking of me like I wasn't even there!

Which is why I answered his questions. "Yeah. Trigon is coming back. The Great Void only keeps things that have no options locked forever. Trigon is the most evil being ever, and he always has at least four backup plans. He isn't ignorant. He'll figure a way out of the Void then he'll come for your planet. Just that this time he'll be wary of the lot of you, and be royally pissed off too."

The collected silence made me only too agitated. I preferred silence most of the time. But right now I wanted action. I was tired of the close space of my ship. I had my first sample of Earth's air. The next item on the to-do list was to smash or snag something. A woman of action: thy name is Maeve.

"It's impossible." The cyborg spoke for the first time. His voice was harsh and low. Predictable for a human male. There was more infliction to it than most cyborgs though. Something in his voice that definitely made him human. "Raven said that it was impossible for Trigon to get out. There's no way out. And-"

"If my mother says it will happen, then it will. There is no point in denying a prophecy. It leads to folly." Raven's sharp voice cut her companion off with no real feeling to her words. The half-metal and circuitry man had more feeling than she did. Great. At least I was smart enough not to mention that she had denied my words only seconds ago.

"Let's call Robin and Star in." Beast Boy commented quietly to Raven, like she was a ticking bomb or something. With a curt nod he whipped out a much smaller version of the communication device and spoke to someone on the other side of it. Pretty nice stuff for something in the Seventh Section.

"Raven, there is something else I must tell you." All the members present turned to look at me; each held a series of apprehension. When no one said anything I steadied my breathing and hoped to Siber that I did not get rejected. If the Azarathan goddess was real, and could reach this planet, then now was the time to let me know. "I was also born on Azerath. I also hold the blood of royalty. I too bare the burden of having the most feared and evil thing_ ever to have existed_, to be my father." I closed my eyes and waited for her denial.

It came it waves of fury! She screamed at me for mocking her. Something definitely blew up behind me and glass was suddenly flying dangerously. None of it touched me. The glass seemed to hit an invisible wall that I knew I hadn't made. Whatever exploded also stopped within inches of crashing into me. Dark energy surrounded me- or it surrounded my invisible shield.

I let the breathe I had been holding go. So that woman was right.

"We share the same blood, Raven. Your majick knows this. You can't hurt me." As an afterthought I hurried and said, "And I can't hurt you."

Shock fury covered her features. She was breathing heavy and her eyes were wide. "Oh Zenthos" she muttered. "But I was never told I had any siblings."

"I was sold to Rokakas." I answered and prayed she didn't ask for details of that.

Before she could though, the main doors that I had entered from a sun's crawl ago opened and the other two members of the team showed up. A Tameranean woman, the princess herself, floated in first. Her eyes were big and bright. Her vibrant red hair cascaded like a raging waterfall to her thighs. It was loose and I wondered if it ever got in the way. I bet it did. She wore a plain enough chrome circlet on her head and I began to fidget. The customary royal purple color of her planet covered her- although 'covered' seemed like the wrong word to describe her uniform. Her top consisted of two straps of cloth the crossed over her breast, only on the borderline of decency. Decency meaning that she covered what she needed to and that was that. It wasn't modest, only decent. A bit of cloth did the same 'covering;' it looked like undergarments. What balanced the provocative slander of her people's older fashions was the half skirt that flowed from the back of the chrome belt on her waist and floated in an A-line style. The fabric brushed the heels of her boots, which were also in the same loud color and were suctioned to her skin from her feet to mid-thigh. Small gloves enveloped small hands. A band wrapped around both of her upper arms, with a flashy green stone set in each completed her ensemble.

I had been to Tamera a couple of times. The whole lot of them enjoyed their ostentatious lifestyle. Not my cup of poison, but our differences make us special; or so I've been told.

The other Titian looked like a too-serious kind of guy. Black spikes jutted from his scalp in random succession and shaggy bangs frayed around his forehead. It appeared like he needed a hair cut. His scowl was half-hidden by the mask that lay from his nose and cheekbones to the middle of his forehead in an angled outline. His uniform greatly countered that of his teammates in a darker way. He was covered from neck to toe in black and red with detailing of yellow. Black and sturdy boots differed from Beast Boy's in the sense that the new guy's were made to be light: perfect for aerial attacks. The shape of the uniform fit snuggly, like it was made for him only. The princess's outfit was tight to the point of cutting off circulation where as his was made be close fitting and not get in the way. A red bird spread across his muscled chest outlined in bring yellow in the form of what I assume to be a robin for his namesake. It looked more like a dieing phoenix to me. The yellow tool belt set on his waist should have clash but didn't and surprised me. A cape fell from his shoulders to the edge of he boots. It was dark and mysterious in that 'lone-hero' kind of way. Broad shoulders and a lean frame pinned him as a man of agility and speed with hidden strength that almost went underestimated.

The two of them, I noted, made an assessment of my own attire and made me wish that I had taken the time to clean and find new dressings. I probably look haggard and chaotic, like I was a couple of dogs and cats short of a storm. Or however the humans say it.

The stranger, who claimed to be my sister, seemed to shrink into a defensive crouch as Robin and Starfire entered. Her eyes darted to the hallways: one behind her leading to the villain's confiscated equipment room, the other behind myself leading to the bedrooms. She didn't know this of course, but she was obviously picking up on escape routes. Maybe the two intimidated her.

It was difficult to read her body language since her dirty, olive green cloak was draped over her. I couldn't determine her body shape; I only saw that she was mildly taller than I. Which wasn't saying much, I was five foot nothing. She may have had some change on her but not much. Her hood swallowed her face, leaving only shadow and two very amethyst eyes. The clothing covering what I could see of her legs gave the impression it was made of purely pockets. It looked as if all were in use too.

"Who is this?" My leader said. He sounded indifferent but polite. A tone he used when he was displeased with something. A surprise guest that looked more like a delinquent could be enough to cause his annoyance.

"Dude!" Beast boy exclaimed loudly and I cringed. "She's a guest. I mean, I found her in the desert. Her ship crashed and she said she needed to speak to Raven. Dude! You'll never guess what-"

I silenced him with a band of black energy slapped to his mouth. Muffled protest promised all kinds of backlash at my act, but I wanted the stranger to tell the whole truth with everyone present. Also, Beast Boy would more than likely be punished for his lack of suitable character assessment. He brought a stranger, obviously from another planet to the tower. With a mask of cold disapproval I eyed the woman. She shifted again, the smallest of movements. She was clearly uncomfortable.

"I guess I should take this off-" She grabbed the edges of her hood and very slowly peeled it away from her face. The action seemed to pain her somehow. There was a collected gasp and my focus on Beast Boy's restraint faded. His gasp sounded odd after everyone had grown quiet.

She looked like me. In a very modest way, we held few similarities. Our facial structure was close to being mirror-like. Same high cheekbones, same petite pointed noses, same cat-shaped eyes; they were all an exact match. That was where the mirror ended however. Her eyes along with being a different color were hard and distrustful, as if she had seen too much death and deceit to ever hold onto a semblance of soft faith. Her flesh gave the impression that the Earth Moon was beaming on it soft, pale, and lovely. Not like mine, but not quite unlike it either. I did notice minute almost indistinguishable if my eyesight was not what it was.

Icy silver hair framed her face; disheveled bangs curtained most of her countenance. The rest of the unkempt and scruffy mess lay in many layers that flipped as sporadically as Robin's. The catastrophe fell to barely brush her shoulders. No Azarathan that I had ever known adorned hair close to my father! The color unnerved me. I did not want to think what this small detail could entail. With only this glimpse of the stranger I began to feel the unsettling affects of being close to one of my own people. It was like a cold caress to the back of my skull.

"She- Raven- She looks-" Starfire couldn't even voice a coherent sentence. Shock advanced on my friends as well as I. They saw the similarities, I wondered if they noticed the hair. Did they make the same conclusion as I?

"I am called Maeve. I have travel very far so that I could meet you, Raven. I am your older sister." The fight-or-flight instinct was itching inside her. I could feel it crawl over my skin trying to escape the awkward situation. Nonetheless, she never illustrated her tension in her voice.

"If that is true, then why did you wait so long to come find me?" Was I angry? Did she deserve that? Several deep breaths should calm me.

"I did not even know I was your kin until only four years ago. I knew I may have been form Azarath, but I hold no memory of belonging to _you and yours_. That woman though, she said we were related. She showed me blocked memories and instructed me to come to you; to save you from another prophecy."

"There cannot be another prophecy." I growled at her. It couldn't be true. I wouldn't believe it. She could be my sister and that would be acceptable. Trigon could not escape the Great Void. I watched her huff at me reaction with dispassion.

"Another prophecy?" Starfire spoke now. I was almost grateful someone was on my side, and I comprehend little of why that was. "That means you heard of the first one, correct? Then you should know that The Trigon is in the Great Void. It is in my understanding that he cannot get out." She paused then looked between Robin, the stranger and I.

"Do you think he can?"

A pause echoed in the tower. I glared at Robin. He ignored me. What was he doing? My father couldn't get out. He couldn't. My hand squeezed around the talisman the stranger had brought. A rune of The Great Beast, a myth my mother had taught me at an early age.

"You mentioned a woman." Beast Boy interjected getting over his shock.

"Yes. She is Raven's mother. She is my…my… She is the woman who unlocked my memories. Memories she blocked herself to keep me safe. Apparently, I was sold to Rokakas very young and our father never even knew I existed." She was looking at me while she answered Beast Boy, and continued to look at me while she answered Robin. "The Great Void holds one weakness: when someone seals something into the void, it opens a hole that can allow whatever is inside the void to escape while the other being is sucked in." She paused and tilted her head to the side. "Do you understand?"

My eyes narrowed at her. "Of course!" I bellowed at her. Something in the kitchen exploded again, it couldn't have been the blender, that was already destroyed from my first outburst with the stranger. I bet it was the oven. Starfire gave and 'eep.' I was too angry to listen to her, I barreled on. "It is how the void works: One way in, one way out. But those inside the void would have to know where within the void it opened. Also it takes a lot of energy to cross the void with only will power."

She nodded. Her expression oddly excited. "See! He will get out. He is not incompetent! His will is powerful enough to get himself out. And whatever friends he has made."

I scoffed at her. "What on Earth could be sent to the Great Void? And who would send it? I am the only one in this Section with enough knowledge of how to Banish and there is nothing here evil enough to waste my energies on!"

"I read that this planet inhabits over six billion humans. You and your Tameranean princess are exceptions of course. Do you know how many other 'exceptions' there could be? It is a planet, its expanse is great! There are even places this race has yet to learn of!" Her breathing was unsteady and I felt the other Titians move a few paces back.

"And you are proposing we hunt for an enemy that _could _be there? You said so yourself, there are too many individuals. And we are not inept! There are Titians all over the world that fight for the same cause as us. If anything evil was around it would be sited and we would take care of it as humanly as possible. That is how it is done here. There are rules and protocols that are met and followed." I was huffing just like her now.

Suddenly she grabbed a handful of my cloak. She pulled me close our noses almost touching, and something very unfamiliar and entirely disgusting passed through me. I was shrinking under her glare. Fire that of which I had never seen and never wanted to feel, burned in her eyes. "Read my mind! Please prove me wrong _neverah_!" Her quiet voice was more intimidating than her yelling. She even used the Azarath term for a stubborn child! She just called me a stubborn child!

"My powers don't work on you." I muttered and it took everything in me not to whine at her. Robin made a sound in the background and Beast Boy took the initiative to tell him what happened.

"If I give you permission, then you can do that much." Her freezing cold eyes pierced my insides and I _really_ wanted her to let me go. _Now_.

"Fine. Only because it is the only way I'll believe you." There! I had the last word! Ha!

The stranger nodded and moved to the couch and sat down facing an empty spot I was suppose to fill. I looked at my team for some form of confirmation.

"If there is even the slimmest chance Trigon can get out of his prison, we need to know." Robin said carefully placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah Rea." Beast Boy encouraged. "We need to be one step ahead you know?"

Cyborg gave me a reassuring smile and nodded to the stranger. "Plus you can check and see if she's bad news or not."

"Please do not worry Friend Raven." Starfire gave me a quite hug and then gave me a soft nudge towards the couch.

I flung my cloak out of the way then sat next to the woman who said she was my sister facing her. With narrowed eyes I gave her a fair warning, "It might hurt. Try not to scream much, I need to concentrate."

She nodded again and I watched as she closed her eyes and steeled herself. Something inside me quivered and I shoved it away as I placed my hands on her temples. My eyes closed too and I began to chant my mantra for focus.

What I saw was something so terrifying I would never be able to vanquish it from haunting my dreams for a very long time.


	3. Possibility of Chaos

Chapter Three : The Possibility of Chaos

The sensation of Raven slipping pass my defenses was unnerving at best. In the inner world I created for us to meet was something I tried so hard to keep neutral. But when Raven entered the scene it changed immediately and bits of my real inner world melted into the scenery. A cracked and broken moon provided the only light and the ground turned to red dirt. Struggling I was able to keep the changes at that.

"I do not know that moon." Raven commented. I tried for nonchalance. It must have worked cause the little _neverah_ nodded then turned to look at me. "Alright, let's get this over with; I want out of here as fast as possible." She must have noticed my flinch because she closed her mouth and looked away in mild shame.

"Fine," I growled. "Come on _neverah_." I turned away from her to face the moon. I missed her annoyed expression but since she was in my mind I could feel it just fine. If the situation had been different I would have smirked. Instead I motioned for Raven to stand next to me which she did, then I concentrated on only the information I wanted to share with her. There were still monsters I could not face on my own yet. I didn't need to bring the _neverah_ with me to my shady past.

The setting shifted but because I told it to, the red sand whirled around our bodies swirling our cloaks in a flurry of fabric. The moon came for us, traveling at an alarming speed. Raven flinched and move slightly behind me. I did smile this time. When the moon reached the rocky and wrecked surface of it turned into organized buildings and smooth roads.

"Anyone can make a replica of my planet." Raven remark dryly. I just huffed at her. So absorb in locking her out, her sarcasm was lost on me. Then the buildings and roads rumbled as I tried to focus on what needed to be done. It would hurt her. I knew it. Her denial in me and my words was blatant; I could almost taste it.

The monster erupted in a more terrifying manner than I had meant for it to. Trigon, in his horrible epitome of all things evil, towered over the world. It had not been Azarath I had showed her, it was earth. And once again terror raced through Raven's veins and my own since I shared her feelings for the moment. Running sounded too appealing and I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet.

"No."

An almost inaudible sound emitted the air. Her terror vastly outnumbered my own and swept over me in merely one, lone word.

A sickening roar deafened our ears and with one look I tried to pull us back from the knowledge. But it held us here with a firm and agonizing grip. Raven noted the panic in my eyes and I gritted my teeth at the fake monster. I would not harm this girl. She came here because I gave her the idea. I couldn't control my fear, but I could fight it just fine. More concentration and focus, that's all I needed, I closed my eyes and tried mentally forcing the entity away. More incoherent roaring and Raven pulling at my arm didn't distract me. I easily shoved the girl behind me as I continued to brutally push the fake Trigon away. It took a lot of energy, energy I could barely summon. I had been tired for months. What sleep I attempted was restless and filled with dreams much like what I was experiencing right now.

Screaming I fought the grip of my mental captor and shoved it far away from my little sister. Then an appalling slip of vertigo set the both of us alone on the red sand, the broken moon far from us like it should be. My breathing was erratic and my chest was aching. Tears threatened to spill and I desperately need a washroom. Too much adrenaline and not enough energy to feed it did that to me. A grumble came from my stomach and I figured I was going to be sick.

Another tipsy spin brought me back to the couch inside the Teen Titians' tower. I hissed then turned to empty my stomach on the nearest flat surface. My body was shaking too much for me to control anything it did. Then a weightless feeling settled over me. It wasn't any better but at least I didn't have to worry about falling into my mess. I was placed on a smooth and soft surface.

When I opened my eyes Raven was leaning over me, her hair falling in a sheet on both sides of her face. She smiled at me and that one expression was the last I saw when the lights went completely out.

Something comfy and soft was under me. My face was mashed into the softness and I new that if I had the choice I would never leave this warm spot. However, the desire to find a washroom became rather strong so I began to move away from my sanctuary. As I stepped back from the bed I realized I had missed the object. Beds were not a necessity in times of war. I had become quite accustom to sleeping on hard ground. Apparently my body preferred the bed. Wuss.

I found a door directly opposite to the wall with the bed. My strides were wobbly as I walked to the door, my hand raised to open it, but it didn't have a panel or a handle or anything of the like to open it. I moved my hand over a glowing keypad hanging on the wall and the doors made a whooshing sound as they spread apart. I frown. That would be difficult to override. Whoever made it should be proud of such equipment.

Shadows swallowed me as I moved to a door across from the door I existed. It was a washroom. Thank Zenthos!

Once I was feeling closer to humanoid enough, I thought about going back to bed. I stood outside the door I came from. The bed almost called to me. A loud clanging broke my thoughts and I looked down the long hallway. Investigating the tower activated the restless feeling I hadn't bothered to sedate yet. So with measured and sure steps, I moved down the hallway towards the clanging as it repeated itself several times.

"I shall prepare a meal to our guest!" The voice was high-pitched and cultured. The speaker had to be the Tameranean princess. I sighed. Not the Titian I was looking for. Raven would have been greater company. _Perhaps she knows where the little _neverah_ is._ I huffed at myself. Fine, I could tolerate the princess's presence if she owned this amount of information.

Straightening my shoulders I motioned for the doors to open and I moved with confidence to where the alien floated. She was in the middle of the kitchen with some kind of indefinable gooey substance in her hair and all over the counters. I raised my eyebrows at her as she bustled undisturbed. She did not sense me at all. Interesting little tidbit, that is. I cleared my throat so as not to startle too much and inwardly smirk as she flinched.

"Sister of Raven's!" she proclaimed joyously. This time I flinch: too early for joyous proclaiming. "I am making the traditional sweets of my world to share my elation for the reunion of you and Raven!" I wasn't sure if she was trying to jump with her joy or if it was some sporadic movement caused by the fumes from the pots on the stove. Never mind. No answer to any question was worth whatever was going on here. I tried to think of some way to tell her I was deathly ill to Tameranean cuisine, when the main doors whooshed open and the cyborg walked through. Grumbling under his breathe he didn't even noticed me standing in indecisive confusion. The princess announced his arrival as if he were a noble in her court.

When he looked up from his mutterings his eye locked with mine and I gave him a raised chain in greeting. I wasn't sure where I stood with these people. "Friend Cyborg! Please you must do the taste testing of my welcoming dessert for Raven's sister!"

I watch in fascination as part of the metal man's face turned green. He shook his head as he tried to be polite to his teammate. "I wish I could help, but I need to check out some schematics." Then he addressed me. "I'm Cyborg. Could you please tell me how to get your ship to stop shocking me and wrecking havoc to my wiring?"

I snorted. His frown only made the sound more difficult to stop. I clutched my sides and shook my head in an apology. "Sorry. Sorry. Your-" I waved my hand at his direction, "You are made of foreign technology. My Firefly acts fickle around new stuff like you. Don't take offense to her. She doesn't mean it." I gave him a sideways look. When he nodded with an easy smile I knew he got my secrete apology. "I could help you out with her. She's pretty dated."

A cyborg who could blanch: something I had never seen in my life. "Dated? Dated?! You say she's _dated_?!?!" Evidently Earth was farther behind in technology then I had assumed.

Another clang snatched for my attention. Starfire was pouting at the oven. "Raven broke it Cyborg. It won't bake any of my dishes correctly". As Cyborg sighed I figured the oven had nothing to do with Raven. "Star, maybe you should give it some time to rest."

Still pouting Starfire nodded then brightened in the span of a nanosecond. "No Matter! The _Glarfnog Noggon_ is almost done. I just need some mustard and sugar and it'll be ready for tonight!"

Once again a low and uncomfortable growl came from my stomach. I bit back a groan and instead asked Cyborg the question I had been aching to ask. "Where is Raven?" He stared at me giving me a quick thorough glance from my feet to my hair. My hands itched to smooth out any stray strands, which might as well just be my whole mane. "She went to get you a change of clothing." He finally said. I felt my cheek heat and tried to clam my nerves. "Robin went with her. Beast Boy is assessing the damage to your ship. It doesn't harm him at all."

None of this information meant anything to me. I didn't care where the other two were. Raven went to get me something, so she would be back. "You want a shower?" Cyborg asked. I could hint to awkwardness. I didn't think he liked me much. Stupid ship.

I nodded and let him lead me to the same washroom only because I figured it was polite. He showed a robe at me to use until Raven returned and told me to take as long as I wanted. The comment was in the underlining of his gestures. Three years on a ship and suffering all kinds of turmoil before that had put bathing on the bottom of the list of requirements. Things like 'not dying' seemed to have taken too much of that list for anything else to really be on it.

Hot water was other blessing I had done without for so long. I took Cyborg's advice and took the longest shower I could. Dirt from too many planets washed down the drain and when I felt adequately clean I scrubbed myself a second and third time. The idea of being in the same room as my sister motivated me to be as unsoiled as possible. Parts of my soul could never come off, but I would at least try to be a better person for her. She was a hero after all, she did good deeds everyday.

As I rubbed the towel over my wrinkled skin I hoped I hadn't scared her into avoiding me. I understood she would need time to accept what I had brought with me. I just hope she didn't pin the whole issue as my fault.

I opened the washroom door in a fluffy white robe and hesitated going back into the main room. Exhaustion begged me to return to the warm and inviting bed. I went to the room but stood at the doorway. I focused on loosening what muscles the shower did not.

It was an odd room. I appreciated the lack of light in the small space. Books lined most of the walls and I held the embarrassing need to pick one up. Rokakas did not need books. Unless it was worth a reasonable sum, they hardly ever read anything. Of course the occasional wanted poster here or there did not count.

More books concealed bits of the carpet. An odd choice in décor that it was too: the carpet I mean. It was a soft lavender in the little light there was, but a haphazard pathway of a darker blue streaked in the center of the room. The path escorted you from the door to the bed. In case you got lost? A snicker escaped from me before I knew it. My own secret joke brought more joy to me that anything in the last several years.

With continued humor I followed the path to the bed, still snickering to myself. The wonderful object was round: a style from Azarath. I stopped. Cautiously I pivoted around to analyze the whole space. Statues of crows and ravens and other little birds sat on what space there was on the bookshelves that was not occupied by books. Arches were incorporated into the décor and a well-sized chest was positioned under a desk.

My throat was too dry to swallow anything. I was in Raven's bedroom. After I passed out, she must have left me here to sleep. Although a sweet gesture, I felt out of place and a chill swept pass my bones. I couldn't sleep here. Not while I knew I was here anyway.

Nevertheless, Raven was still out. She left me here, so here is where she expected to find me. I couldn't explore the Titians Tower without upsetting someone. Starfire had shared feelings of joy at my arrival. Either she couldn't read Raven's outburst at me well, or perhaps Raven accepted everything. _Right_. I didn't bank on positivism often enough. A pessimist usually stayed alive.

I fidgeted where I sat eyed the books on the shelf. The white chest in the corner of the room was pulsing with majicks. It felt supernaturally intimate, like a lover's caress. Strange and yet comforting, feelings I smartly shoved into a little jar and stacked onto another little jar in the back of my mind.

One particular book on the floor beside my bare feet caught my attention. "The Best of Poe" the title stated. Eyebrows raised in intrigue, I opened to book to the table of contents to scan. Yeah, this could shut that pulsing up, and entertain me until Raven returned.

Guilt was something I tried to avoid at all cost. I hated the feeling. You'd think with all my circuitry I could just delete the program or something. No. It doesn't work like that. All my human emotions and will and endurance and quirks are wired to the hard drive. I would never get a new one of those. Mine was mine and only mine. Nothing more to it.

But Guilt? Yeah, I could do without that file. That and Annoyed. Maybe if I did not possess the emotion 'Annoyed' then perhaps Beast Boy wouldn't be planted face-first in the hot desert sand right now. Pity was related to Guilt and I wish that was something I didn't have either. Every time I attacked the changeling I felt compelled to apologize. But I don't.

And if I wasn't Guilty of the way I had acted to Maeve then her ship wouldn't be attacking me every 3.49 seconds! I shouldn't have looked at her like that. She was dirty, sure, so was her ship-

OUCH!

Stupid ship-

AH!

It shocks me with a volt my sensors can't even place. She may have been dirty-

WHAT THE?!

But at least she's sophisticated.

Her networking and blueprints are nothing I have ever seen. I couldn't even come up with the correct chemical equation for her fuel. It was so complex.

"Maybe you two should get a room."

"Why can't you learn to shut up?" I snarled at B as I shoved him out of my light. Adding enough force so that he flew off the ship completely. I was also annoyed with the ship because it actually preferred Beast Boy's company. That's right. You heard me. The ship _preferred_ him than me!

HISS

Her shocking mechanism couldn't be located either. Another thing that bothered me. Bothered me like Beast Boy bothered me.

"I'm just saying!" The green dude complained from next to the tool chest. He at least learned to be out of arm's reach. Of course he always forgot about my detachable arm. Sometime he made me wonder whether he forgot things like that on purpose to make me feel more human, or if he really did forget that stuff. "You look like a jealous boyfriend."

"You would know from experience what a jealous boyfriend looks like?" I countered. He annoyed me like no other, but he was good company. We could joke as easy as we could fight. It was comforting to feel like this around him: human.

"Of course. But it isn't my fault!" The changeling cried in horror as he brought me the three wrenches I wanted to try on the ship.

"Uh-huh." I mocked him. That was another thing about this complicated contraption.

SONOFA-!

Her measurements were unlike anything here on Earth. Which should have been obvious to me, but I don't work on many out of our section's equipment.

"I'm serious Dude. The ladies love me. It's the pointy ears, you know. How am I supposed to know they have boyfriends, or husbands?"

"Or girlfriends or brothers or fathers or-"

"You're just jealous of my player-skills." B muttered half-heartedly. He knew things with _Her_ weren't well right now. But because it's him, he had to ask about it anyway. "How's Bumble Bee doing?"

I tried for a casual, laid-back answer but he must have heard the hurt in my voice. "They've been better. She's just says she can't handle the distance. Titians East is her team, you know? We're all Titians, but that is _her_ team. I can't just transfer. I mean I went to get them started and got things moving strictly for motivational reasons but I belong here." I was almost worried when B doesn't say anything for long periods of time.

"Sounds like it sucks, man." Was all he said. I nodded and tried to think non-threatening thoughts to the ship. "How about this though." I looked over at Beast Boy and raised my only eyebrow for him to continue. "I mean, Raven has a sister."

Oh, so he wanted to talk about the girl whose ship was zapping the living-

WHAT DID I DO?!

Beast Boy resumed the topic as if I hadn't had an unidentifiable amount of electricity forcible sent through my system. "I like her."

I stared at him for a second, my hands in the air about to do whatever I had wanted them to do whatever that had been but I couldn't remember. I wasn't shocked-stupid that Beast Boy liked a woman. No. That was common knowledge. But _that_ woman? He couldn't be feeling well cause he-

STOP WITH THE SHOCKING!

"She's scared of us though, I could smell it, especially when Robin showed up. And before that when I was taking her to Rea in the first place, she was afraid. It's a palpable thing." My friend wasn't looking at me anymore. A weird glaze came over his eyes as if he were remembering exactly what her fear smelled like.

"You told me you couldn't do that in your human form unless you concentrated." I sat the tools aside and looked directly at him.

"Yeah. Well, that was last year Dude. I guess I'm still evolving." He gave me a goofy grin but I knew he was trying to make things sound so easy. I envied that in him. He could make to most vial situation seem hopeful.

"Evolving huh? Sounds like you were hitting on her." I grinned back at his stunned expression. If he didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't push it.

"I swear if it had been anyone but Raven's sister I wouldn't have!" The green guy cried. "Please don't tell Raven. She'd kill me three ways to Thursday! I mean she didn't have one of those gems in her forehead like Rea. How was I suppose to know!" Then as an afterthought he said, "I didn't hit on her!"

I frowned at that. "I _knew_ you'd hit on her! Raven told me that gem was given to her when she got control of her powers. Since this woman didn't get that training, she didn't get a gem. And why would I tell Raven? She looked like she couldn't get out of her fast enough when that woman passed out. She left her in her room, yeah, but I thought she looked uncomfortable with the whole situation."

"That's 'cause Rea doesn't deal with feelings well you know. She was anxious. She left because she needed to keep herself busy while Maeve sleeps."

"You sound like an expert on Rea now."

I didn't see a blush on Beast Boy's face, but I did note that my sensors indicated to a pick up in his heart rate. How was this any different than the guy's super-sense of smell?

"Shut up, dude. It's not like that you know. I mean, I smelled it. That's all. You know there's nothing else there, dude. I mean, I like Rea too. But it's not like that. Not like that at all."

I waited for him to quit rambling like normal. I swear Beast Boy's mouth is as fast as his cheetah form. He never knows when to shut up-

OUCH!

"Stupid ship! It's not my technology that's got you in a pissy mood!"

"Uh Dude? It's a ship. It can't hear you."

Yeah. I really hated being Annoyed. I disliked the unsettling squirminess of being Guilty.

At least B didn't bring up what Raven's sister said. Trigon coming back to destroy the world still haunted my nightmares. Nightmares I couldn't completely understand I was having. I was part machine. Machines didn't dream, much less have nightmares.

But lately I had, and they were bad. Those shadows of Beast Boy, Starfire and myself were always there. I hated it. I either fought myself and lost because I couldn't overcome my flaws like it somehow did, or I had to attack and kill Beast Boy's or Starfire's. And those always ended with the shadow turning into the real Beast Boy or Starfire.

The worst of the nightmares though were the ones with Bumble Bee in them. She was suffering and I was helpless to do anything. Sometimes my shadow would take her and I would have to watch him torture her. Like _I_ was torturing her! Sometimes she would call out for me and when I found her, she would turn into a shadow and attack me.

I could never bring myself to hurt the shadows of Bee. I always woke from those in moments of self-preservation because if I stay asleep any longer, I would have to witness her murder me.

These nightmares raided my sleep for months after Trigon was sealed away and for some strange reason, recently too. My last one was only a couple of weeks ago. It had been about Bee.

"Hey. Cy? You doing ok?" I forgot Beast Boy was here. Had he ever suffered from nightmares? After all, the little guy did say that cats and dogs could dream. It wasn't like he was part machine.

"Hey, do you mind if I ask you something personal?" My comrade's persona changed dramatically with that one question. His boyish appearance seemed to melt away from a cold, almost predator look. I would never admit- ever!- that Beast Boy could intimidate me. The changeling was a whole foot shorter than me for circuit's sake. Though built with lean muscle, he would never be able to out-lift me in barbells.

"Sure."

One word. Great. I had made him go into that whole 'one-word-habit' he picked up when he finish with puberty. Just freakin' fantastic. Although things got awkward, I still figured I could ask him anything and he'd give me an honest answer.

"Do- or- Did you ever have nightmares of that time when Trigon tried to destroy this place?" I turned back to the ship. I figured if I acted like it was nothing then maybe he would think so too.

"Of course I did. No one goes through something like _that_ and not get any nightmares as souvenirs. If you didn't get 'em then I'd have to send you to the Funny Farm ASAP." He sounded so distant. He was uncomfortable and I was guilty about that but for some reason the answer didn't make me feel any better. So I pressed him.

"What are they about?"

There was an awful five minutes where I thought he wasn't going to answer. I slumped my shoulders and hoped that he wouldn't act all weird later. Then he spoke up again. "Mostly I am fighting Trigon." I turned to look at him. It sounded conceited and I was going to tell him it wasn't a nightmare if you beat the most evil thing ever to have lived. But his face stopped me. He was so tortured.

"I don't know where the rest of us are. It's just me fighting the scariest dude ever. I know I can't win. But I'm doing it anyway 'cause I think the rest of you are on your way. I remember thinking 'Robin will show up with Raven and it'll all work out.' But it doesn't. None of you show up."

"Are there others?"

"Yeah. Some are really messed up; like that shadow-me went around killing all of you, one by one. I watch it happen like it's some kind of movie. But then it isn't a movie anymore and it isn't my shadow that is hurting you. It's me."

There's nothing to say to that. I mean I can't tell him that it would never happen. I couldn't believe the kinds of things my subconscious could come up with. All I say is, "I know what you mean." Then neither of us says anything for a long time. Beast Boy breaks the silence first.

"When was the last time you had one of those dreams?"

"A couple of weeks ago Man. You?"

"Just five days."


	4. Sisters' Bonded

Chapter Four : Sister's Bonded

Raven's taste and Robin's practicality really did amaze me. The head-to-toe mirror in Starfire's room held my reflection and although I was completely against mirrors in the unreasonable paranoia of mirror-majicks, I had to stand there for several minutes and admire myself. The old tatters of my old life were being burned on the roof- another unreasonable paranoia- and the new material on my skin felt as wonderful as hot showers were. Starfire and Raven sat on the princess's bed admiring the outcome with obvious excitement. Raven smiled when I had thanked her- that was before I even saw the outfit- and her faced had not changed since. The other Titans were in the main room. I wasn't sure if they cared what I looked like but Starfire seemed anxious to show the others my transformation.

Although it took a whole week to finalize the uniform, it was worth it. I was particularly picky about certain aspects about the design. It needed to fit perfect and it needed to be the exact opposite of what I use to wear. No more Rokakas. No more need to hide.

Brown leather boots clad my feet, very much designed like Robin's for the purpose of aerial attacks, or running for my life. Dark gray slim, form-fitting pants clung to me comfortable. There were no pockets like my other set, but that just meant I would have to store my arsenal somewhere else. The light gray, hooded jacket was nicely made for storing secretes. It covered slightly past my shoulder in a fan-shape. Only a modest amount of flesh showed between the cloth of my jacket and my fingerless leather gauntlet-inspired gloves made of the same material as my boots that wrapped around my forearms snuggly. Showing very little flesh was mildly odd. Rokakas did not show skin: it was part of their way of life. But I was no longer apart of that life. I already had my hidden blades within these custom gloves. The coat had two tails on both sides of my legs, which was slightly difficult to walk with but I found a groove, as the humans say it. A red sash swathed around my middle the extra cloth hung behind me to trail like a sparrow's tail. It was the only color I had, Raven was afraid what color to pick for me so instead she went with neutrals. A choice I supported when she had asked me what I wanted anyway.

Hidden within the sash was an assortment of nuts from the Fourth Section. They could do all sorts of task: from freezing a small surface to ice, to emitting a covering smog. The nuts were one of my favorite spoils. My long sword was secured to my back. A set of wicked sai were strapped to each leg, the three pronged weapons lay dormant under my jacket. I had the habit of being armed to the teeth. Something I was sure not going to give up any time soon. I loved my weapons, every last one. Right now I had the rest of my babies locked up in a white chest similar to Raven's in the modest room the Titans had offered me. The chest was a gift she had given me yesterday. I loved it.

Under the Jacket I had a corset on. More weapons were strapped inside the material. They were my last minute small stuff. The "just in case" kind, although very hard to get to, it meant that no one else could get to them easily either.

I slipped the hood off and observed my hair, it was still wild and flipped all around my head; I had given up long ago trying anything with it. Starfire had tried her best too, but it disobeyed every trick the Tameranean had. Its silver color unnerved Raven and I figured it was because mine looked like **his**. But **his** was white, mine was silver. It shimmered and caught the light and reflected it. Bothersome when in hiding, but if I was asking for attention, it was an easy give-way.

"She is glorious! Friend Raven you have the 'knack' for this!" The Tameranean Princess proclaimed with a sunny smile. "She looks like a hero!"

I raised my eyebrows at the Starfire in the mirror. "Really?"

"Of course!"

I had never been called that. I had no reason to be called that. Sure I _looked_ the part, but it was more difficult to 'walk the walk'… another human expression.

"She's right. You look very nice." My little sister said. She seemed to be enjoying herself. I smiled at her and nodded. I swore to myself I would try. I could try this hero thing. It couldn't be so hard to do the right thing. I mean, I had never tried it before. But I had never really been given the option to do it. The Rokakas were a rag-tag people; we were shady by our very nature. There had been no alternative for me, something I had told Raven. She had heard of Rokakas, never met one though. I was beginning to share little about me. It was a start and I was thankful for Raven's patience. When I couldn't talk about something she left me be, usually changing the topic. It usually turned to her and her adventures as a Titan.

Only one and a half of Earth's weeks past since my crash landing to this planet, and I still wasn't sure if I fit any better than before. The two female teammates enjoyed my company and spent quite an amount of time with me. Thankfully both listened well. If one asked a question I wasn't comfortable answering, then they let it be. So far, keeping my past buried was easy. Beast Boy had also taken an acceptance to me. When I wasn't with my sister or Starfire, the changeling would keep me company. He gave me a tour of the city and introduced me to all manners of Earth cuisine. Pizza was a marvel! I had never had it anywhere and when I told Beast Boy this he almost passed out. Then he just laughed at me for a couple of days. His humor was a welcomed relief. War forces one to be nothing but serious. One cannot let one's guard down for any reason. Ever.

A mutual silence grew between Cyborg and I; he didn't avoid me and seemed to be tolerable of me. There was little to speak to him about, and when the company of Starfire and Beast Boy became overbearing and my sister was not around I would steal- barrow, yes, an odd word, but it's meaning is correct- one of Raven's books and sit within the vicinity of the half-metal man. Secretly, I made watching him as a hobby. I found his facial expressions and hand gestures fascinating. When he brought the topic up I told him I never met a cyborg who owned so much feeling. The answer seemed to bother him but he let the topic go and even allowed me to continue my hobby.

The only Titan I couldn't seem to rub right with was Robin. He was cold and indifferent about me most of the time, like at meals and during movie nights. However, the team leader refused to speak directly to me and even made the silent oath to not be near me unnecessarily. Which hardly bothered me; some of Robin's actions and rules annoyed me. He was firm and in this network, his rule was law. When Robin gave a direct order he expected it to be followed.

With what little free-time I was aloud, I research my new setting. I spent hours reading or surfing the internet for any information I could snag. From Earth's weather patterns, to the biography of the Teen Titans and their enemies, I absorbed as much of it as I could.

I glanced at Raven for a moment, she was smaller than I had imagined. Her hood was off and her shoulder-length blue-ish hair look shiny and soft. She always kept it down and refused to brush it aside when it fell into her face. The cloak was a heavy and sturdy velvet and was splayed over Starfire's bed. She rarely showed her body. The black dress she wore reminded me of the styles of old Azarath. A deep plunging neckline showed her collarbone and some of her shoulders. The sleeves covered her whole arm, from shoulders to fingertips. A slit in the skirt that flared at Raven's ankles displayed a decent amount of leg, all the way to her mid-thigh. The gold and red belt and brooch holding her cloak in order were both traditional Azarathan jewelry also. Flat, ballet-like slippers adorned her small feet.

Although her eyes were darker in hue than mine, I could see so many things in her face that we shared. My eye-shape, my nose, my jaw, it all matched perfectly. She was my sister, completely and truly.

A loud alarm went off suddenly and I shifted unconsciously into my fight-or-flight stance.

"The alarm! Come Friend Maeve!" Starfire grabbed my hand around the fingers. I think she may have seen me sneak my small blades into the gloves.

"Starfire!" Raven seemed troubled as she ran to catch up to us.

Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were in the main room watching the communtica- um, the TV- intently. A display of a building smoking held their captivation.

"Robin? What is it?" Starfire floated over to the leader and stared at the screen.

"Whatever it is, we'll take it down, Star." He turned toward his team and I narrowed my gaze at him as he gapped at me.

"May she come along with us Robin?"

I turned to my little sister and softened my look. I was an outsider here. Robin didn't know who I was. There were too many scars to my history. So many scary things I never wanted to look at ever again. I was sure he could see this in my eyes. He sure couldn't read my mind anyway.

"Come on Robin." Beast Boy added. "She should see how we handle things here on Earth. We have to represent, you know!"

"Yeah, come on Robin. Show me the ropes." I smiled and I think it turned a little too wicked because he narrowed his eyes.

"Fine. But she is your responsibility Raven." She nodded and I scoffed.

"I don't need a babysitter. I can handle myself."

"Whatever. Titans: Move out."

My weapons were strapped to my back and to my legs; I had two blades on my wrists and my chard-nuts hidden in my sash. I could handle a small army if I had too. With a nod to my sister we both flipped our hoods up and headed out.

I hadn't bragged about the small army thing, I had not expected an elite Tin-Man from the First Section to come for my head though. Whether it was attached or not I'm sure was missed in the details, my head that is. There was no way they could have found me. No way. I had bee so careful! I even went through the Fourth Section to avoid these no-brainers! I mean, were the Sections _that_ serious? I thought I had fixed this whole problem when I had spared that Trad! He had begged me and although Trads were weak by their very nature, I still thought he would've been better off as part of the list of the dead.

But I had not killed him. There had been so many I already killed. I let him live and gave him some of my hair to give to his superiors as proof of being dead. Guess it would only be legit if the Elders of the First got a hold of my head. Greedy old swine!

When the team and I had reached the injured building there was nothing around. So we split up, I was with Raven, since Robin ordered it. A rule I think I was going to have issues with. As we moved down an old deserted part of the city Raven had told me that it was Old Jump. The remains of the first city before Trigon hit. Unwanted and nasty things lived here now, living with no rules and order.

That was where we found the X-129 model of the Tin-Man. The First Section's personal army was made up of nothing but the latest model. This seemed to be it. As it locked on our position I knew it came here for me. I mean, how many other aliens crashed landed on Earth who were also at the top of the wanted hit list in four Sections? Call me conceited, but I was fairly sure I was the only one. So I shoved Raven out of the way as the Tin-Man came for me. Raven would be a liability, not an asset. I couldn't chance the robot going after her. Hell, the Tin-Man would swat her away like she was little bug.

She screamed something I couldn't wait to listen to as I turned and I ran. I was prideful in my flight abilities when it came to that fight-or-flight action. It did not disappoint either, I felt like I was flying I was running so fast. I watched as two cars were envelop in black energy and suddenly hurled at the Tin-Man. It faulted but other than that it seemed unaffected. I hissed at that. Sturdy as Mountains they are; stupid too, nothing but sophisticated circuitry.

Raven was flying towards the thing. I ran straight for her jumping away from the Tin-Man's barely humanoid shape. At eight feet tall and naught but sharp angles and sharper limbs. Two legs, two arms, four fingers, and an oval head with three red glowing foci made it too creepy. Barely human… what were those crackpots at the First thinking? I reached Raven and her black energy that encased her vanished. I held her close as I started running away from the Tin-Man. I needed the others. I couldn't take one of those by myself, maybe a couple of models ago I could've.

An energy blast of high frequency caused me to lose my footing and we landed in a tangle of arms and legs. When we stood up the Tin-Man was coming for us. I pulled the thin, wicked, long sword from my back and seized it at the ready. The metal could cut the Tin-Man. It was made for combat against things like the Tin-Man.

Before either of us could react several green blasts hit it and the Tin-Man once again hesitated but did not slow down. More green orbs and a handful of hand bombs hit it this time as Robin and Starfire came to stand with us.

"I know these things! They are The First's Army!" Starfire cried over Cyborg's sonic canon. "But I do not understand why only one has come."

I felt Raven's eyes on me and I took off toward the Tin-Man. I sliced at its almost ankle-like structure and let out an excited yell when the metal split with an awful screeching sound. My happiness was short-lived as I watch the Tim-Man's metal foot turned to liquid then reattached itself.

Well that's a new trick.

I flipped out of the way as the high frequency sound blaster was directed at me. Using sound waves was the army's specialty. Every Tin-Man model had it.

A roar came from a green triceratops at the end of the road. I ran out of the way as Beast Boy charged. There was a loud clang as the dinosaur's horns hit metal. He actually made the thing take some steps back!

I slipped out one of my chard-nuts into my hand, then threw it at the concrete at the Tin-Man's feet and smiled as the surface froze immediately. When it slipped I hacked at it again with my sword. This time I did not wait to watch the metal change. The second the detached arm turned to liquid I tossed another chard-nut at it and the liquid instantly froze. One down, but it wasn't the one with the sound blaster. I jumped onto the things shoulder when it aimed at the spot I had been in. A second later it became nothing more than a small crater. I could have been a crater? Well, upgrades were a wonderful thing.

Three small cars floated in front of us with Raven in the center of the ammo. I jumped for the ground as Raven flung the autos at the Tin-Man. But she didn't stop there. She grabbed trees and parking meters and loose bricks and pieces of concrete from the ground. My little sister knocked the thing into its crater! Beast Boy laughed and Cyborg high-fived her. Starfire looked at it then back at Raven with a worried look.

Robin moved closer to the crater's edge when suddenly I knew it wasn't over. Instinct. _Instinct._

I pushed him out of the way and the next breathe had me clutched in the Tin-Man's metal hand. I muttered a vial curse from my past life.

"Maeve: Wanted Criminal C5X. You are under arrest by the order of the First, Second, and Forth Sections. You have no more freedom from here until your trial for the coup in the Second Section, as well as a number of other crimes."

"And you should be arrested for sounding like rusting metal." I countered.

"Maeve!" I looked down at Raven and frowned. Pasts don't stay buried. I should have dealt with the problem when I had the chance. Instead, I ran from my old life.

"Raven I'm sorry, but-"

"You no longer own any freedom Meave of the Wild Section."

"What is the meaning of this?!" Robin cried. "Maeve is on Earth soil. I am Robin of the Teen Titans and I gave her guest rights when she came here looking for-" He looked over at Raven then continued "She came looking for our help. And I have granted it to her. She is no prisoner while she is on Earth."

Tin-Man stared at Robin with his three red eyes. A number of calculating sounds came from the robot as he sized the Titans up. It was the perfect distraction but Raven was staring at me too intently. She knew what I was thinking. Not reading my mind, but she could probably feel it. I couldn't have been hiding my intentions. Being in the clutches of a Tin-Man was on the bottom of my to-do list.

"Robin: Leader of the Teen Titans. Guardians of the Seventh Section. Are you assisting in the arrest of criminal C5X?"

"No."

I gapped at Robin. He was talking back to a machine? Tin-Men didn't have conscious thought. They had their orders and they followed them without any mercy or remorse. Cold metal through and through.

"'No.' Denying the First authority." I gulped.

"I said 'no' because she is under the order of _Aliena Deristrias _Maeve has done nothing wrong while here on Earth." He was the leader for a reason. I couldn't stand to be under him because I had once held his position.

"_Aliena Deristrias" _Tin-Man repeated. Another long moment pasted and I relaxed a centimeter. This could take forever.

"Robin?" Raven called for her leader. Her husky voice held another level of something. I frowned at the unidentifiable something. I logged the moment away for a more appropriate time. "Please. We will need her. If Trigon- When Trigon comes again…"

He lifted Raven's chin and nodded. Then he patted her shoulder as he moved close to the Tin-Man.

"Cocky aren't we?" I couldn't help sarcasm. It was my number one defense.

"Shut up. You don't talk." Nope, there was probably another reason why I didn't like him.

"I, Robin: Leader of the Teen Titans, ask to speak to your commanding officer."

The Tin-man stared for a few seconds longer then he opened a device on his chest. The hologram projection of General Malteis looking grim and intimidating appeared. As the Tin-Man did the formal introductions I smile sweetly to the General as our eyes locked. There was no way he'd miss me. Even in my new uniform. Our past was kind of special. I waved with my fingers like his concubine does.

"Jewel Witch!" His scratchy voice was a nice reminder of the trouble I caused him the last time we tangoed… as humans say it.

Robin cleared his throat to grab Malteis's attention before I said something that would get me into more trouble. Smart kid, I _was_ going to say something. "General, this unit seems to be breaking the law of _Aliena Deristrias_. He is taking this woman captive while she is under the guest rights I gave her."

"Boy! Do you have any idea how dangerous this woman is?! She is the most wanted criminal-"

"You're just upset because you can catch me in an act." I countered indifferently. The hologram turned on me. My smile was still in place. "Can you, General? How long has it been? Five? Six? Seven years? I have been pretty clean since then and I am under the _Aliena Deristrias_. You wouldn't fight _that_ would you?"

A cold wind whirled around us, running through my hair making me look far too hostile, a look that came fairly natural to me.

"Don't talk." Robin muttered to me. "I'm doing this for Raven, but I expect a full explanation." Out loud he said "General this woman is in no way guilty of any of the crimes the Sections accuse her of while she stands on Earth soil. Those are the rules of _Aliena Deristrias_."

"I know the rules Boy!" He just didn't like them. "You cannot expect me to just let her freely live within your spared Section? You must understand Boy, if I let her be then the Elders of the First and the Council of the Second will hunt her down. Your planet will be endangered. She cannot be worth that to you. She is trouble! She is an abomination! She will deceive you and your isolated section will be utterly defenseless against her!"

Robin glared at the Malteis. "Do you find us incompetent? She is one woman. The First and the Second must uphold the Terms of _Aliena Deristrias _just like all the other sections. Meave has guest rights, granted by me: a citizen born of Earth." He waited this time. Waited and watched as I shifted nervously. The jerk, he was probably doing it on purpose. Pausing like that so I'd get jittery.

"She must be held accountable for her actions! No one is allowed a free pardon!"

"Oi!" I waited until I held everyone attention. "I am right here. You can talk about me like I am or I can get angry and do something irrational. Which I bet you'd love General. But I think I need to let Robin know I have not been convicted of anything! You need someone to blame and I am your best bet! Do not lie to the Boy, General. It will come back to destroy you." I took a deep breathe.

The robot let me go. Good. Malteis figured out he lost Robin with my statement. Ha! Take that you no good, evil, boot-licking-

Then the Princess had to open her pretty little mouth!

"If this would suffice, I have a proposition." I said. I had been silent too long. To be the future ruler of my planet and the current ambassador for my planet, I had to polish my delegating skill. When General Malteis looked and me and gave me a nod I continued with the utmost confidence. "Meave will have to stay here on Earth, as the _Aliena Deristrias _dictates. However, my proposition is this: she is to remain her and complete a set amount of community service hours."

All my friends gapped at me. "Star?" Robin questioned, but I ignored him. The General was considering my words. He appeared unhappy with the whole agreement. Then finally he said "Two hundred. And you'll need these."

The robot of the army opened a compartment in his chest. A black box was brought out to Robin. He took it, opened it, and then showed the rest of us what was in it. A bright, shiny silver bracelet glittered in the sunlight, winking at me.

"What is-"

"Dirty old man!" Maeve cried as the robot put the bracelet on her awkwardly. "You fight like Rokakas!" She screeched at the hologram.

General Malteis sneered at her. "This is a device we've created just for the likes of her. You strap on a counter part- The cuff in the box there- and if she leaves a certain vicinity of you…" A smile that held no warmth crossed over his features. "Let me show you."

A scream like no other I had ever heard ripped the air around us like ribbons. Her body was covered in ice blue static that must have been the cause of the pain. In sporadic movements she trashed against the concrete. There seemed to be no way to escape it, the woman curled in to a ball, then she tried to beat the concrete to dust, then she tried to run away. All this she tried, but failed. Her body did not listen.

"Put one on Boy! You granted her guest rights." General Malteis growled at Robin as Maeve continued to scream. His voice sounded far too satisfied.

Robin did so. The metal expanded when he slipped it on, and then shrank. "What the-" And Maeve stopped screaming. She panted like an animal as she gave a harsh glare to the commanding officer. A glare that hurt me to look at.

"Sorry dear Boy, the device was still under study when the X-129 took them. You can't take it off." He was smiling now, and I greatly disliked it with every fiber of my being.

Shocked anger flooded through me. "You will take it off!" I commanded.

He laughed at me. "Princess Starfire, you have already set your terms. These are mine. She can't possible get out of your sight if she is in pain."

"And now Robin must be punished? What if he must leave to some important matter? He cannot do the babysitting!"

"There is one of her and five of you. Figure it out. There are two more sets in the box. You so strongly defended her! She's your problem now."

There was a cold slimy feeling that slithered down my back. I glanced at Raven. She was furious. I gulped. She chanted then the hologram fizzled and died. "Get off this planet! NOW!" she commanded to the robot. It shuddered then turned around to fly off wherever it came from.

I stared from Robin to Raven then I glanced at Maeve who was still panting on the ground. They looked like they were ready to murder. I hoped it was not an intent to each other. Raven moved towards Robin and rubbed his arm. Robin had saved her sister. Why had he not done the same for mine? Then her hand moved much too quickly for Robin to stop her. She held a pair of the cuffs.

"No! Wait Rae!" Beast Boy cried out. He stood next to Raven as she bent over her sister. Maeve's eyes widened. Then she glared at her.

"I will bare this too." My teammate declared to everyone. I was not sure who she was speaking to. Beast Boy? Maeve? Robin?

"You should explain yourself." Robin said sternly. He made no move to stop Raven. He watched as Maeve cringed when the cuff shrank to fit her sister's wrist.

"It's a long story." Maeve's voice was strained as she moved to stand. I noticed her legs shook. The little of combat art I knew told me that her stance was set to a 'flight mode.' She shifted her weight and suddenly the flight mode was flipped to fight mode. Like the light switch.

"We have time." I looked at Cyborg and Beast Boy. They had exchanged a look between themselves as they moved to stand behind Maeve.

She noticed the movement too. She couldn't run, but she could fight. I had seen her fiendish weapons hidden within her gloves. I did not want to be on the sharp end of them.

"It's not a pleasant story."

"We've been through some scary stuff. We can handle it." Beast Boy was trying to reassure her. He did not touch her though.

"You say that. But I'm not sure if I can go back to that place. I wanted to shut it out. Lock it up. Never hear of it again. And here you are telling me you'll 'handle it'" she looked disgusted but not at anyone specifically. Raven was about to speak when Robin gentle grasped her hand. She stilled and I felt that nasty stab in my heart. The stab that seemed too reoccurring.

"Rokakas are not good guys. By our very nature, we are the outcasts of our original species. Whether we are sold or join the Rokakas because we have no other alternative, it is not something one chooses on a whim. That woman- ah! I mean my mom- told me it would be the safest place for me. She wanted me hidden from the universe."

I frowned. She was a criminal. She had done her misdeeds. Why had Robin agreed to this? Why was Raven's sister so important? She couldn't even call her own mother 'mother.' Raven had to teach her the Earth term for 'mother figure.'

"My Mother bought me from my mom. She was the monarch of her clan."

"Aren't Rokakas a clan?" Beast Boy interrupted. He had been abnormally silent. "I mean if they're the race and all I mean I don't-"

Maeve cut him off, "There were too many Rokakas in general to be in just one spot. Each section has a clan of Rokakas and each clan is held together by one monarch. Azarath lies in the Third Section. My Mother was the monarch of that section. She purchased me and followed all the requirements my mom asked of her." There was a pause as the alien seemed to be remembering something of her past.

"I was only to be told what planet I was from. I was to never know who my mom or father were. Under no condition was I to ever come to Azarath. Under no condition was I allowed on Earth." Maeve paused again and a pained looked crossed her features. "My Mother followed her rules. She trained me to become the next Mother. She was ill. A cancer of some form took her when I was still maturing. But I did as she commanded of me. I became the next Mother of my clan. And I started a civil war within the most ruthless race because of it."


	5. A Haunting of Her Past

Chapter Five: A Haunting of her Past

"It's an outrage!"

"Blasphemy!"

"The Mother has commanded it!"

"She isn't one of us!"

"She wasn't born like us!"

"She was taught by The Mother!"

"Why should we follow her?"

The shouting and arguing was so confusing. I hated it. Why in the name of Mothers would they be fight about it now? Mother said this would happen she gave them all plenty of time to complain earlier.

As I sat in the attic, away from all the yelling there was a small _plink_ on the one window. I crawled carefully, wary of the loud voices bellow. The Rokakas Five would seriously have a fit if they knew I was listening to them. It wasn't bad enough that they locked me up here to begin with; they even thought they knocked me unconscious. Idiotic old fools. So caught up in how things 'use to be' they won't even let me try to be The Mother.

_Mother would have set them straight_.

I peered out the window and saw an imitating set of full orange eyes. Two black slits widened slightly when I smirked it them. _Arsenal_.

"Bout time." I mouthed at him. The man was from the Second Section. Tall and menacing, the Second imbed their young to be strong and fierce. Males and Females were taught nothing but the art of killing and combat. Arsenal was also one of my dearest teammates. We grew up in our clan together. He had been here only a year before me and never missed a chance to teach me everything he could.

All the things my Mother couldn't anyway. The kinds of things all children should learn.

The man grinned. He slipped a tool into his hand and began to work on the steel bars of the window. It was one of his inventions. It was quiet and quick, absolutely beautiful.

When the bars were gone the tool disappeared and another tool took its place: a glass melter. I slithered through the hole he made and when my bare feet touched the roof, Arsenal began reattaching the bars. Dark red skin covered in thick scales reflected the two moons' light. Arsenal's six foot five inches hunched awkwardly as he worked. A sharp face with sharp angles and high cheekbones frowned in concentration. His clothing was torn and there were different colors splotched haphazardly across it. I recognize two: one was Arsenal's blood; the other was a Deffer's blood. It wasn't hard to guess what the other stains were.

I turned to watch our surroundings as he worked.

The barren House of Five gave the feeling of being abandoned and wretched. Inside, it looked like any other aristocrats mansion. The front yard supported no greenery however; and the two old Blackwood Trees were always bare, their limbs stretched towards the plum sky with desperate need I didn't understand. I each time I was brought to the House of Five I though the Blackwoods were asking the sky to retch them from their roots and take them away from this inhospitable place.

"What took you so long?" I muttered under my breath, what with Arsenal's delicate hearing and all.

"Sorry Bing, I had to get this." He whipped out my wrist blades. "I knew you'd have a rightful fit if I forgot them." And the man smiled at me.

Katines don't smile often. With all their sharp teeth everyone assumes they're baring their fangs in warning. But I was sure Arsenal would never look at me like prey. He told me once, that one day when I became The Mother he would be afraid of me.

I took my favorite weapons and caressed the metal before I strapped them to my wrist holsters. Such a small comfort only an inanimate object could bring me settled into my stomach. My body had been so tense since the Rokakas Five had captured me from the Celebration of Mother's Death. As I shook my arms out, I strained my ears to the nasty yelling still ensuing inside.

"She should know her place."

"We shouldn't have allowed The Mother her whims."

"Who else could lead us? She knows everything The Mother knew!"

"There is no time to train another!"

"She is a child! We can't kill her!"

That last one had Arsenal whip is head at me. I shrugged. I didn't know that had been an option. But I couldn't show fear now. I was The Mother now.

"_No fear, my dearest. No panic. Always be clam and collected. They will look to you for strength, my dearest." _

"Let's move Bing." Arsenal grabbed my hand then let me go just as quickly. I couldn't let it bother me though. _"No panic."_ I also hadn't told him to stop calling me by my nickname. 'Bing' was a term from the Second; it meant trouble.

"Where? I can't run from the clan now Arsenal."

"I know." I jumped from the roof on the side of the house where no widows were. He turned to watch me land gracefully before he took of into the dark. And without any hesitation I followed him.

"Then where are you taking me?"

"After the Five took you away, the clan began to grow restless. They began to fight. I couldn't stop much of it." I knew what that meant: _It isn't my place to stop riots._

"So you're taking me back to the Celebration?"

"No, half of the clan wants you to be The Mother. They left most of the other half alive. But once the Five hear of what has happen, and you know they'll only hear one side of the story, then we'll be hunted."

I nodded. "So, where is my clan?"

Arsenal picked up his pace and I stayed with him easily. "Near the boarder. We are prepared to leave."

I bit my tongue before I ask where. I need to be calm. _"They will look to you for strength, my dearest."_ My clan would want a battle plan. I quietly thought about our options. We couldn't stay in the Third Section. The Forth and Sixth were closest, but they wouldn't take us in. Both were strong in the belief of _You and Yours_. I was responsible for my clan now.

The First and Second would simply murder us once they got word that my clan killed their fellow Rokakas. It doesn't matter if the others had attacked first; there were no laws that said we could not attack one another. The Greatest Rule was to never kill fellow Rokakas. My clan had done the killing, we were the villains now.

My brain was starting to grow frantic. The Fifth Section was our last hope. There was no other option. I couldn't run to the outer limits of the Seventh Section. The Fifth Clan wouldn't turn us away. They wouldn't slaughter us with the first word. They were unstable and kept to themselves.

Fresca, The Fifth's Mother, was insane and thought the whole galaxy wanted her dead or to steal her beautiful hair. She truly believed the First's Leader was in love with her and wanted to capture her so she could become his concubine. Not the most stable ship ever. However, she was deadly in her defenses. No government could infiltrate the Fifth Section. Fresca was a mad genius.

She was also my Mother's blood fellow. They grew up in the third together, but when Fresca's mind began to fray Mother sent her to the Mother of the Fifth and begged for the Fifth's protection on her blood fellow. How Fresca became The Mother of the Fifth was a mystery it was said, that most of the Fifth Clan couldn't explain.

Fresca knew I was my Mother's prodigy. If her mind hadn't completely disintegrated maybe she would help us.

When Arsenal and I reached the Docks my clan cheered. I was greeted with shouts of glee and congratulations, but I heard the relief in their cries. They did what they did without any proof that I would even come back to them. They condemned their lives with only the certainty in their hearts that I was their true Mother and nothing else. I smothered the fuzzy feeling in my gut.

I moved with sturdy grace as I past Arsenal and boarded the Tracktor, a large carrier that could last for several days without a fuel stop and plenty of room for my clan. Without even signaling a command the others boarded the ship; not a one looked back.

The Fifth Section was also the Wild Section and Fresca's red planet was my home for a year before things went bad, about as bad as I had ever seen them.

Fresca was the spitting image of my mother and I truly trusted her as such. She wore her grey-blue hair long-down to her waist- and her soft ice blue eyes always looked at me with such admiration. It was difficult not to trust her. She had never taken a girl child from her clan for training, as was tradition for Rokakas Mothers. They were never taken from outside the race. Prodigies were always born as a Rokakas.

My Mother had been ahead of her time with the idea of training a freshling. She had thought that because I was a freshling I was untainted, ready to be molded the way she saw fit. I saw no error in her thinking; neither did Fresca.

She ended up training me for her own clan, something no Mother had ever done; taking the prodigy of another Mother was completely unheard of. But Fresca was a brilliant and crazy woman. I already knew all my Mother had; The Wild Mother saw it as a time-saver to use me as her prodigy. And the best of it all was that her clan agreed to the act without any mutiny.

"_Always be calm, Me Star. Ne'er show 'em yer terror. Ev'n when the fire of Oden is upon ya, kick the _Dratsab_ in the arse!"_

"_I understand."_

"_Me Star, I've said to be less rigid. You'll grow old before ye know it! Too long a woman is rigid and tight, too long she be unfit for a man!" _

Yes, Fresca favored me. She was my Mother and she taught me to be fearless and powerful. Although my first Mother taught me the same guidelines, Fresca taught me to be a person all my own while being a Mother at the same time. I didn't have to be Fresca, I could be Maeve and still be as great as a Mother.

When the Rokakas came for me a year after I lived in the Wild Section, Fresca died. So did Arsenal. So did my first clan. So did my new clan. So did my murdering clan members. All but one. A Trad, sniveling at me feet, begging for his life. So unbefitting for my clan. He disgusted me. But his words were worst. The Sections had allowed the Rokakas clans to genocide _Me and Mine_. They figured that if we could kill each other off, then they would get away without a mark to their record. The Sections had encouraged the proud people of the Rokakas to hunt me down and kill _Me and Mine_.

With a lock of my silver hair I sent the Trad on his miserable way to the First Section to tell them of the Great Rokakas battle. He was to tell them that we were all dead. That I was dead.

I knew I was sending him to his own death march when I let him go that night under the cracked moon.

And then I made a break for the only clue to my old life. Azarath. When I learned that I was not born as a Rokakas my Mother had told me I was from Azrath. A beautiful, peaceful planet in the Third Section, it was my only hope to escape my old life.

The wanted posters in the Sixth Section told me that I was a fool to have thought I was safe. I had been charged with too many crimes. I was charged with all the crimes of my people. From that coup in the Second to the high quality bank robberies in the First to the assassinations in the Forth, I wasn't safe. Never safe.

Then that woman tells me suddenly I have a little sister and she is in grave danger and that her home was going to become the playground of the frightening Trigon! I could never catch a break! The universe- Hell! Every universe- was out to get me. Maybe to collect the reward money?

I wasn't a Mother long enough to actually do any kind of 'crime.'

I wasn't a Mother long enough to even prove I was capable of any 'crime.'

So in my time of fear and desolation I turned to the only hope I had. The one connection to the word 'family.' Raven was all I had to hang on to sanity and hope to be apart of society. Without her… without Raven, I was nothing again. Nothing but a reward.

**TheNewAbomination.**

She was a misguided ghost. Traveling endlessly in fear and isolation and pain. This woman whose eyes wielded her shadows as a shield to kept herself safe from the world. Any world; every world. When the galaxy had been her enemy she had to turn into something she could never leave dormant again. An animal released from its cage never wants to go back inside willingly. It isn't its nature.

I could almost understand her. She never had a choice. Raven's mother had sold her to save her daughter from a hellish kind of future. Her clan leader, her master, taught her student to be nothing but the sharpest of all the swords. That her student needed to watch her back instead of how to share her toys. Then in the moment to prove herself, her role as a leader was jeopardized by some old fools' notion that she was different; something she could not change. As if being born in Azarath made her a mutant, she grew up with the idea she would forever be alone. Forever to do what she was told. Forever to follow the old fools. Forever to live suffocated.

But what could I say to her? Raven looked horrified, Starfire could've been on the verge of tears or beating the woman to a pulp, Beast Boy might end up sick, and Cyborg was shaking his head in confusion as he stared at me, his leader. None of them were ready for that kind of story. She had glazed the details during the war. She spouted facts and numbers but no emotions. What could she have felt when she watched her second master die or when she saw her best friend fall in combat? What had she felt when she sent the second to the last Rokakas off to the First?

And what was I suppose to do now? Starfire had set negotiation terms and we, the Titans, had agreed to them. The band on my wrist is proof of my consent. She was a criminal- through and through. The things she had been charged with, the ones she shared were heavy misdeeds. They were the kind of transgressions that 'community service' could not save her from. Was this deviant woman seeking redemption? Did she really want to even be saved from her old life? It sounded like she did. The self-loathing was so thick in her words. It was frightening how someone could hate themselves so much and still be alive. What did she have now? What was she living for?

I could almost understand that kind of self-loathing. What other options did she have? I had killed people, when the situation had called for it. And the situation had called for it several times. _His _laugh resounded in my head and I gritted my teeth. I understood that line. The line that defined good and evil. The line that was so easy to cross; and I had crossed it. On more than one occasion the leader of the Teen Titans had crossed that line. And it had been such an easy thing to do. Not once did I not regret the wrong choices in my life. There were excuses, sure. But aren't excuse merely a way to avoid the truth?

I stared at Maeve. She looked so dejected. Arms wrapped around her midsection, head hung low, disheveled hair hid her face; she was the picture of dejection. How could I hate her? How could I, above all the Titans, hate her? Despise her? Scorn her? She was so fragile right now as she stood surrounded by heroes. Anything I said right now could break her. Am I to be her executioner? And with Cyborg staring at me like that, he expected me to say something. Something that could what? Something to condemn her? Something to save her? Something-what Cyborg?

Finally, she moved. Her sliver hair shifted away from her face, her posture straightened, her eyes grew hard; she was steeling herself against whatever I was going to say to her. Or whatever Raven said to her. The sisters locked eyes and I wondered if they could speak telepathically, like Raven and I. The silence was hard and uneasy. I needed to say something. I am no executioner, but I am the leader of this team. It is my duty to be whatever this woman needed me to be right now. In this moment I would have to meet that line once again, I had to show this woman the same line. And then, I would have to become her judge or her teammate.

"Maeve?" She tilted her head in my direction but her eyes stayed on Raven's. "Maeve." I called more persistently and she looked at me. I took a deep breathe to stall for a moment longer. "What you have said… Your past… The things you lived through…" I stopped to steady myself again. Christ, this was hard. "Do you regret your old life?" I paused.

Starfire gasped. "Robin, you cannot possibly be thinking-"

"Maeve." I said to shut Star up. I swear, it's difficult to think when she interrupts me. It's not like this whole leader-thing is easy or anything. "Do you regret all of your past?"

The woman's eyes grew impossibly large as she comprehended what I was asking her. To her credit she waited a moment. She thought about her life and thought hard.

"No." She finally said. "I do not regret all of it, there where some moments that I may always think fondly of. But my misdeeds, the things that hurt my heart to think about, I do regret it." Her eyes shimmered for a moment. But she didn't cry.

I nodded and waited for a few seconds. "You are under our protection because you can help us defeat Trigon. You are to finish your community service. You are to try and do nothing but good so long as you live on this planet." I wanted to flinch as I watched her face hide every last bit of emotion.

"I understand your terms, Robin."

"Then Maeve, starting today, I want to dub you a Titan Representative." I didn't pause for the others to stop me. "In your last life you didn't have a choice. Here, you will have nothing but choices. You could do all the things I told you to do, or you could walk away right now."

The woman faced my glare head on as she gave her answer. "I will stay and accept your offering, Robin" Then I watched her whole body give the slightest relaxation, as if a great weight disappeared from her. And her mouth quirked slightly at the corners, like she was thinking about smiling but decided against it at the last moment.

She couldn't hide the smile in her violet eyes though.

I gave her a nod. "Also," she quirked an eyebrow, "I am the leader here. You will also treat me as such. Do you understand?"

A moment past as the cold wind blew around us until Maeve smirked. "Finally a challenge!" And this time the smile was free to show itself.


	6. When Fate Comes to Play

Chapter Six: When Fate Comes to Play

It was nothing but a challenge. It was suppose to be fun. It was suppose to be something to keep my mind off of such things as the Seventh Section coming to a forsaken end! But it wasn't any of those things. It was damn annoying! Robin- Mr. Fantastic himself- tells me to do something and I do it. Where does it get fun? Where does it get challenging? Where do I get a moment to think about the idiocy of my actions?

I accepted his blasted rules on the fact that I did not want to be shipped to the First by express. Robin had given me a way out and I had latched onto it like a dying man. Arsenal would be so disappointed in me.

Train. Eat. Train. Read and understand Earth. "Community Service." Make Dinner. Training. Sleep. Then, it happens all over again! No time to think; no time to regret. A hero is this. A hero does that. A hero is _not_ this. A hero _doesn't_ do that. And throughout the day, nothing but trivia of hero business. It's like brainwash. It all leaves a sharp tang in the back of the throat.

The building the Tin-Man had landed on was my first act of 'community service.' In a matter of days Cyborg and I had the landmark fully operational. It was now a small practitioner's office. A doctor fresh out of school bought the place and was now trying to help the crazies and the druggies of Old Jump City. Cyborg claimed that the doctor's ideals were useless. Of course he had upgraded the building with the most advance security system the metal man had at his disposal. "Useless" he says, and yet he wants the doctor to succeed.

Starfire refused to talk to me now. She no longer sought my company and rejected all possible means of dealing with me. Something I am grateful for. Our worlds don't belong together. The future leader of a planet and an ex-Rokakas could never really get along. Her pleasantries before my past came out were nice enough and I won't forget that kindness, but that's really all it was: pleasantries. Like talking to an important politician you don't like. It's important that you don't offend the esteemed individual, but you don't mean a single nice thing you say. I watched her isolate herself from Raven's company too. But my sister was mildly bothered by her friend's actions. She told me Starfire would cool off eventually. Maybe towards Raven, I doubt Starfire would ever treat me the same way again.

Beast Boy took his time to adjust to me and I did not push him. He reminded me of Arsenal in some ways. He was clever and wanted to make me laugh and I was sure he would be a loyal comrade if he wanted to be 'friends' with me. Friendship was an odd word for me though, and it took three dictionaries and Cyborg's and Robin's help to get the meaning across. I had never needed such a thing. It sounded rather fanciful in all honesties. A luxury. I mean, was it something I even deserved? Could it one day be something I actually acquired? Once the building was fixed, Beast Boy began to seek for my attention again. And I realized I missed him in the short time he avoided me.

Robin kept a close eye on me though, along with my sister. They seemed similar in subtle ways. They both highly thought of the idea of justice and both looked down at the exceptions. Villain after villain was apprehended and locked tightly in jail. Some cells were specially designed, others were sentenced to isolation. Other villains escaped, to my surprise though it happened often. When I questioned this, Robin said that society wished to be involved in the jailing of its criminals. Apparently society did not know when to get off the "high horse."

Another part of my "community service" was to involve myself on missions with the Titans too. I captured villains and criminals and helped escort them to the police. Robin rarely allowed me to do anything without supervision and that couldn't be helped. I was bound to him and Raven by the new cuffs the General forced us to use. Robin kept the third pair on himself and didn't allow anyone else to have it, which brought no complaints from the others. Starfire would probably cut her own arm off before she took the cuffs. Cyborg and Beast Boy didn't mind my company but they were not ready to be bound to me in any form Not that I hold anything against any of them. Robin was the leader, it was his _job_ to look after me, and Raven was my blood. It was her _right_ to guide me through my metamorphosis of Rokakas to hero.

It wasn't the change of atmosphere when I walked into a room that had my blood boiling. It wasn't the death glares from Starfire or the awkward silences from Cyborg that made me want to swallow an ice nut. It wasn't Beast Boy's reaction and avoidance that caused for my semi-permanent mood. It wasn't the small disapproving looks I caught Raven at when she thought I wouldn't notice that forced shame into my nightmares. It wasn't even Robin's bossy, egotistical, arrogant, conceited, haughty, bigheaded, overconfident, condescending, know-it-all character that made the idea of slicing my ears off appealing.

It was my weapons. Or lack there of.

Robin had stripped me of all me blades and guns and nuts and tricks. I was left feeling bare like a newborn. He locked the lot of my babies in a special room within the hall of villains.

And that hurt too. Like I was villain.

It was a test of will, he said. Robin wanted to see how dependent I was on such a dangerous lifestyle. Rather, he thought the idea of such weapons brought from my past so close to me would bring me back to living such a dangerous lifestyle. Of course I don't _need_ my weapons. But I do love having a sharp object somewhere nearby. One of my few comforts in my life, the cold tang of a blade strapped to my arm.

As for my petty revenge, I stole the remaining set of cuffs and stuffed them inside my sash. It makes me feel better to be in control of _something_! _Ha_!

_Stupid Robin…_

In the room I was given I felt only too alone, I know Raven still sought my company, but I know I could not share my thoughts to my sister; I could barely look her in the eye. She couldn't understand the choices I decided. She had been told she was destined to ruin Earth; there was no choice in the matter. A horrid prophesy that could not be undone, haunter her first sixteen years. I, born in a royal family, lived the way of a cold hearted, calculating, monster. I was a monster.

Although, Robin may have taken pity on me for the time being, how long will it be before they realized they didn't need me and shipped me off to the First. Trigon or no Trigon.

_Trigon…_

Which was another problem altogether. That woman- my mom told me that Trigon would come back stronger and smarter and with more resilience, but I was never told when. At least Raven had a date. I was supposed to fight with nothing. No date. No weapons. Nothing. How am I supposed to win if I didn't know what was called for and what wasn't? I was above breaking rules. I did it several times before, however, now that I was to be a savior of the weaker I couldn't forgo the rules like usual. And when it was dark and the loneliness began to seep into my bones I would think of Arsenal and wonder what he would say to me at times like this. Oh, how far I had fallen from the great warrior I had been.

But wasn't that what I wanted?

I needed to abandon my old life and here I was trying to think like I use to, breaking rules and rejecting the will of the weak. Rokakas warriors were deadly and precise. The training of my mothers was still ingrained in my brain. I doubt I'd ever forget it.

_Never kill a fellow Rokakas… _

_Kill with no feeling…_

_Cold. Calculated. Precise…_

_No mercy, for you will receive none…_

Not at all how the Titans lived. Not how Raven lived.

A whole month since I stranded myself on this section, an alarm sounded while I lay awake at three in the morning. My body was beginning to adjust to the time change, the nightmares were worst than ever though. I was dressed and ready before any of the others- _probably because I didn't have to attach any weaponry to my body_- and waited in the living room, all the while the alarm sounded. Red light flashing into my vision and reminding me of a world made of blood.

Robin checked his equipment to find the problem and snarled a nasty curse as the others rushed in. Beast Boy struggled in with a tired and seething look.

"_Dude_!" He whined, drawing the word out to three syllables. "Who gets up this early to break the law?"

"Red-X" Robin snapped as he moved towards the doors.

I yawned just so I would look like everyone else, "Who?" There was a silence as the group mentally battled for who would tell me.

"You have never looked Red-X up in the directory?" Starfire asked. More than looking pained by talking to me, the princess only gave me a dry look of modest concern. This Red-X must be one bad guy.

"I haven't been able to do much research with all the 'community service' you so graciously assigned me to." I answered with a shrug and as little sarcasm possible. With the sneer she gave me I figured I failed.

"He's Robin's arch enemy." Beast Boy offered with a huge yawn and a cat stretch.

"Come on guys." Cyborg interrupted as he began pushing us off towards the exit.

Wayne Enterprises hangs onto one-fifth of The United States' economy. There are buildings all over the country and a few in some other more promising countries. The company developed a variety of items, from military weaponry to business contracts. It was a world I didn't want to get caught up in. Not too long ago I used to steal from companies like this, or I was stealing for it; whichever paid the most. That was how my world was decided, owned by the highest bidder.

And it was here, in Jump City's tallest and most expensive building, that we found Red-X, bungee jumping from the thirty-fifth floor of a fifty story structure. Flying like a black Kro from the Wild, the kind of creature meant to be apart of myths and nightmares. A feat I was rather impressed with, considering he's the villain. It's not like I can't commend him for his skills of course, if he was Robin's nemesis then he should be worthy of my praise. On the basis of one Rokakas to another; he would have made an extraordinary Rokakas.

And as I'm thinking this, Robin is barking orders to catch Red-X before he can touch the ground. I know what Red-X will do. I would do it in his position. Starfire and Raven flew towards him with ammo charged and at the ready, Beast Boy takes a winged thing's form and grabs Cyborg's shoulders, Robin's grappling gun tightly attaches to a ledge on the twenty-fifth's floor and rapidly sends the man towards his adversary, and I know none of them will make it in time.

Red-X twisted his body and detached the cord at his feet, missing Starfire and Raven, with a swift kick to Beast Boy's beastly face sends him and Cyborg into the glass of the building, and as Red-X freefalls toward Robin I watched the two of them share a glance. It's almost impossible to really think that is what they did though, considering they are both wearing masks. Then Robin lets his gun go and the two begin to fight as they move towards the concrete!

"Brilliant plan Boy Blunder!" I shout even though they aren't paying attention to me. I move towards the edge of the building and realize I don't have my clingers! I couldn't scale the building without them! "_Robin_!" I scream in rage. How could I really be of any help with the way I am now? What was he really trying to accomplish by robbing me of my dear weapons? They were all I had? All of who I was came down to those weapons!

Then Starfire seized Robin as she let the other man continue to fall. Suddenly, with an eloquent twist Red-X landed on a ledge. He ran down the thin ledge without hesitating and slipped past the corner. I was on his trail already with much the same speed on the ground. I knew every move he played as if it were I playing. Evade the flying enemies; disengage the one with the most flexibility and the one with the deadliest ammo, then move in and take the leader head on with no back up to save him. As if I were the one playing…

I took off down the street with the enemy in my peripheral vision. I could match his footwork with ease. Which worried me, he was on a ledge yards in the air, where as I was on a wide stretch of a flat road. I focused on how I was going to actually catch the guy though. I grabbed a garbage can on my way and took a moment to stop and aim, then I chunked the metal thing. I hit the building right in front of Red-X's path and shattered the window. With the momentum he had the man wound up running face-first into a shower of glass. Good thing his skull mask covered all of his face, I barely wondered somewhere in the back of my head if he inhaled any of it.

He stumbled and fell a few floors before he caught himself. But I was already preparing for that; I jumped and landed two floors below him.

"Hey!" I called up to him.

He shook his head to clear it of the remaining glass then tilted it at me in contemplation. All black tights and too much muscle for it. He was covered head to toe in it. A blood red X's sliced across his heart and both biceps, another displayed on his belt and two more on the back of his hands. A skull mask was the only defining point to his uniform, it too was slashed with a jagged X. As the bitter wind raged around us his cape billowed around him like torn and scattering wings. "Hello lady. What may I do for you this fine evening?" He sounded smooth and very appealing, like there was something utterly undeniable under that skull mask, like we knew each other rather intimately and not conversing on the edge of building and in the middle of a heist. My hood covered my features, but a skilled observer didn't need a face to tell male from female.

"Hand over the stolen property of Wayne Enterprise?" I asked as sweetly as I could. I had never tried sweet before… Or even asking for that matter. I sounded really lame.

He laughed. _Slag it! I'd never try sweet again_!

"Are you a Titan, love?" He sounded so smug, no longer appealing and attractive.

"Something like that." I offered. "I just need the stolen property. I'm not looking for a fight." But I was already in an offensive stance. _Instinct_.

"Sorry love. But my employer is handing eighty grand for this beauty." Red-X held up a flash drive then slipped it up his left sleeve.

"Eighty, huh." I did the math in my head, converting Dollars to Rocks. "That's something." I nodded. It was a job I would've done.

"You appreciate my occupation?"

"Don't flatter yourself. I can simple acknowledge the value in that property."

"A tempting fate."

"Tempting indeed. But I'm clean now." I shrugged. What was I doing? Telling this guy about myself was one of those things Robin mention to NOT do. And in no more than ten seconds I managed to let him know I once was a thief.

"So if you aren't a Titan, then what does that make you?"

"A trainee." I grinned then I jumped for him. It was a manner of the wild cats from the Wild Section. They could jump several yards into the air to travel the mountains they lived in. There was one floor between us, then no more. Fresca told me once that it wasn't a matter of knowing how the dominate creature worked. She said the network of _all_ creatures was what was important. She taught me to live like the wild cats, and the Kro and an assortment of other creatures.

"Serious. Aren't we love?" He called as he evaded me and took off down the ledge then shot a cable from the palm of his hand. Magicks? Red-X grabbed it then flew to the next building and landed on a roll onto the roof. I followed. Grabbing his cape.

Not my best plan.

It did get me on the roof though.

I did not have a handy grappling gun at my disposal. All I was left with was Plan B, not my favorite alternative, but a working alternative all the same.

"Are you mad?" Red-X rounded on me. I jumped away from him, gaining distance. With no weapons I suddenly realized I was at one hell of a disadvantage. Hand-to-hand combat came easy for me, but this guy was a force I couldn't compete with in my current state. Suicidal: thy name is Maeve. But he took off again before any fighting actually started.

"Oi!" I yelled as I ran after him. Roof jumping was not foreign to me. I had just hoped I could avoid doing something so reckless. Alas, nothing ever seems to go the way you want it to when you need it to. So the two of us took off across rooftops in the dead of a cold morning.

Finally I had him cornered- in a way. There were no more rooftops to jump so that left the questionable fire escape. As I landed in a fluid roll I suddenly realized what the itchy feeling on the back of my neck was.

The cuffs!!!

How could I forget them?

Pain like no other raged inside my body. Lighting ran a rampage along my bones and burned the back of my neck. I could feel lava rush over my exposed skin and through my clothing to char the rest of me mercilessly. Angry flashes of pain blinded my vision and shoved my body to the floor ruthlessly. And I could feel nothing else. The wind was like the dry desert winds of the Sixth, blistering my soul. The rooftop was a rock of hot coals, scalding me from the inside out. It stung and bit and clawed and slashed and _burned_. Nothing had felt so awful. I wanted to die it was so excruciating. I had never wanted to give anything so badly to make the pain stop! There was no way for me to think this would be worse the second time around.

I saw a dark shadow blur through my vision. An angel or a demon? I couldn't tell, but could it save me? Would I make a deal with any devil to make the pain stop?

Without realizing it I took out the cuffs and slapped one on my wrist clumsily and threw the other at the general direction of the shadow. No good deed goes unpunished. I should have never lied to myself, to Raven. I should have told her right from the start what I was, what I would always be. I couldn't go around capturing criminals, claiming to be a defender of Justice. I had spent my whole life running away from Justice!

A deal with the devil, that's what I would be amounted to; nothing but a devil's advocate.

**TheNewAbombination**

A damsel withering in pain, a silver cuff with signals I couldn't recognize, a cold night; too many damned things keep happening to me. What the hell did she want of me? A woman who wasn't a Titan but who was trying to get me to hand over the flash drive without any violence? She was a fighter, it was obvious. The way she moved, and kept up with me, only Bird Boy could do those things. Except for when she grabbed my cape to follow me earlier. That was a level of stupidity and desperation, not a place Robin tended to tread.

And now here she was, gasping in pain while evil snakes of electricity ate at her sanity. Was the cuff supposed to help her? She had one on her, so what was I going to do with the other? Wear it? How would that help? Too many questions, none of the possible answers sounded like any good could come to me. And why should I even care what happens to her? Friend or foe, I worked alone with no regards to anyone. When it is of use to me, I'll take the assistance of someone. Like Bird Boy… At one time… But this woman..?

"_Pl-ea-se!" _She rasped, her violent amethyst-like eyes piercing me dead still. And that was what broke me: one word, broken and weak, on a lady's red lips, with eyes full of torture and sorrow and begging for me to help her. I must be slipping. I closed me eyes- though I'm not sure why- and slapped the silver band on my wrist.

For I moment nothing happened, but when I opened my eyes I saw the woman shaking with sweat on her forehead. No evil sparks. No more pain. Involuntarily I took a step towards her. She grinned at me from her fetal position.

"Thanks." She panted and shook again, probably from the aftershock. She tucked her chin into her chest as icy wind attacked us on the exposed rooftop.

"Yeah well, glad to help." I said as I tried to take the cuff off. It shrank and tightened around my wrist almost to pain. _Shit_. Just… Shit. You try to help a damsel in distress out and what do you get? A freaky alien bracelet that adjusts itself to stay attached to you, like a girlfriend who took the breakup badly. Absolutely wonderful. "Oi. How do I get it off now?" I held my hand in front of me but keep my fist tight. No use in blasting an "X" shaped hole into her hooded face. It was probably pretty; she should shake the hood and let me see.

"Oh" She grinned again as she slowly began to test her muscles. "You can't." It sounded so painfully obvious to her that I almost felt dumb for asking the question.

"What do you mean 'I can't'?" I yelled at her. Pretty or not, a woman with a smart mouth was not an attractive woman.

"Exactly what it means. You can't get it off. It'll shrink or grow depending on where you need it, but its purpose has been activated and no amount of willpower will deactivate it. You can send your regards to the First for sending underdeveloped equipment after me."

_The First_? Is this woman for real? What bloody scheme could this woman have pulled off to involve the First in the Seventh's matters? Suddenly the idea to leave the woman sounded all too tempting.

"Alright. Well, glad I could help you." I gestured towards her body as I moved to turn my back on her.

"You are forgetting something." She stopped me by grabbing my arm with the cuff. That was fast. She had been sitting several paces away from me. "I owe you for your help." She gave me a small smile, one side of her mouth turned up more than the other. She looked rather overconfident in that sexy way only it seemed she could. No other woman had looked like she could beat me. I wasn't even sure what game I was playing anymore.

"A reward, huh?" But it wouldn't do my ego any good to let her know she caught me off guard. I turned slightly towards her as a bitter wind shifted her hood. "What did you have in mind?"

If possible her smirk grew a bit wicked as she tilted towards me and kissed the outside of my mask. It was far more exciting than it should have been. I didn't even feel the heat of her lips, but I wanted to. God, how I wanted to. The pressure of her body against mine was solid. I could feel her body heat, but it was much higher than it should have been. Was she sick? No, it was what ever happened to her earlier, when she was shocked with visible electric streaks. And it felt so _good._ The feeling of a woman against me was something I hadn't had in far too long. But this one, she was different, she kissed me. _She _came to _me!_ What was this woman thinking? A criminal like myself and a… Who was she? But I didn't get the chance to ask. She jumped and danced out of my grasp a second after her "reward."

"I hope to see you again, Mr. Red-X." She grinned at me with her sharp teeth and then held up a slim metal liter. I stared at the liter a moment more before understanding seized me by the throat, held me in the air to leave my feet to dangle, and laughed in my face.

It was a reflex of my honor to grab for the flash drive. I reached for it just as she had expected me to and swept her foot out and threw me off balance. When I turned to face the woman off again the flash drive was gone. I hadn't seen her put it out of sight. She was good.

"It's a shame you're not on my side." I taunted. She grinned. It was catlike and very deadly. I wondered for half a second if she smiled like that when she killed a man. She had the eyes like a killer. One doesn't hide something like that very well. "Let's see what you can do Wild Card." An instant later we were at close-range and fighting like this was our last fight. I never went this far with Robin; I never needed to. It was like the kid knew who I was, and would hold back on some small notion that we were the same.

But this woman… She was all stealth. Her strength was to get me off guard. I had the favor of this fight. There was not a scrap of weaponry on her. If she could wield supernatural powers then she would have used them already. I would only need seconds to finish her off. But that's the funny thing about wild cards, they're never what you expect.

She blocked every jabbed, twisted her body to catch me off balance, and was in no real hurry to gain distance from me. She lived in the close-combat world. Long-range could be her weakness, but I wasn't too keen on breaking this tussle up so soon. For the first time, in a long time, I was seriously enjoying myself.

"You're pretty good." I said and was shocked to find myself vaguely out of breath. That same insane, catlike grin shut me up. She was enjoying this too.

"I'd better be." Then she hit me. A nice solid fist in me gut told me that it was a good thing it was plated. Everything, from knives to bullets to even a seriously trained fighter's fist, was blocked by the plating in the handy suit I now wore. It had been such a waste to leave it sitting in Robin's Hall of Villains. The woman's smile vanished as she tried to move out of range when she figured out how special a suit it was.

And I missed her too. She was fast. Speed and Stealth were her weaponry. She didn't need anything else. Hell, anything else and she'd be a living, breathing weapon herself! How interesting was my night turning out.

Her style was unlike anything I had ever seen. I was a master at plenty of martial arts, I had to be. My acrobatic nature was my highlight. But this woman… She was everything ever imagined when it came to fighting beautifully. And she was beautiful. I figured it was a really good thing she didn't fling energy or dark matter. It would have made me miss the most graceful creature the world would ever witness.

Raven and Starfire were _not_ skilled in hand-to-hand. This woman was specifically _made_ for it.

She hit me again.

Her leg was at the ground supporting her weight on second, the next she was on her hands spinning herself to hit him in the neck. Several times, four times in fact. Before I caught her by the ankle and yanked hard to send her stomach straight into my fist. She coughed.

That was when I felt it. "A disturbance in the force, eh?" I called at Raven as a shove the woman away from me and jumped out of line of fire from the shadowy hand that shot from the ground.

"I still don't know what that means." Raven's deadpanned voice came from my right and twisted my body into the air and landed right on the edge of the building. Close one. Yeah, I meant to do that…

"I know. That's what it's so funny." I didn't real back any of my sarcasm anymore when I spoke to Raven. She just doesn't have the sense of humor to even humor me. My eyes strayed to the other woman. She was on her feet and she didn't appear as if my punch hurt. I knew she didn't have plating. I had to be bruising.

"You are under arrest Red-X." Raven said as she held her hand out to me, her palm facing my face. "Do not move." I chanced a look at the hooded woman then whipped out my spinning _shuriken_ and dove for Raven, who was closer. If I got her out of the way, I could fight the Wild Card again.

It took too short a time to close in on the Titan. Such a disappointment really, how did they ever expect to catch me? Raven was down with a swift kick and she was flat on her back when I move to knock her unconscious. I do not really know why I thought the woman in the hood would simply _let_ me attack her… colleague. But when I moved with my _shuriken _still activated closer to Raven there was a sharp sound of metal on metal and a not-too-pleasant vibration in my left hand. I found myself staring at an equally shocked and ravishing young woman. Her movement had blown her hood away. Sliver hair whipped in the cold wind, and hard violet eyes glared down a small pointed to nose to burn holes in my forehead. Her jaw was sharp yet feminine.

There was a straining in my left arm that stole my attention from the pale fighter. There was a black shape pressing against my _shuriken_. Narrowed my eyes at it, not just a shape, it was a sword. I lean but jagged-edge sword. I was about as long as my forearm and it held my own weapon completely at bay. As if the spinning mechanism wasn't trying for the life of it to start working again. That was where the vibrations were coming from. I turned the spinning off and stared at the woman in wonder.

"Truly a Wild Card." I spoke and felt like what happened next was entirely justified. While I stood entrance by some _woman_, that same woman took two steps forward, knocked my weapon out of harms way to Raven then moved a fraction of a second later to slice the bottom half of my skull mask clean off. She didn't hit my flesh and I saw the disappointment in her eyes at that realization. Just _what_ was this woman?!

There was a small commotion to my right and I didn't stick around to let the Titans throw me in jail. I moved without a second thought, jumping down the precarious fire escape. I could still hear the changeling's mocking calls and Robin's egotistical proclamations of challenge. Stupid bird thought _he_ stopped me. He'd take the credit of his team as if _he_ had done all the work. Because of his "_brilliant leadership_." But it was _that_ woman who had won. She tricked me. Played me a sap.

But I remembered the torture in her eyes as I speed into the dark. That undeniable want to live had been real. I had saved her and she knew that. The kiss had been a distraction to steal back that which I had stolen. Clever little creature. There had been a challenge when he fought; a silent acknowledgement between two very clever and masterful fighters.

Who was she?

Her eyes haunted me even now, as I ran through the cold autumn air at some ungodly hour in the morning. I could feel her body against mine; I could still see her eyes filled with disappointment when all she cut had been a mask.

Whoever she was, she was not natural. She wielded dark matter, just like Raven, but she had been just as shock by that little turn in the battle. She used the advantage as if it were natural. There was only a moment of hesitation before she sliced at his face.

The metal of the cuff on my wrist brought about another set of mysteries. What was after this woman? She mentioned the First section. That would mean she committed a _very_ bad thing to have them stalk her to the neutral section, the Untouchable Section. And what was a woman with a past like that doing with the Titans?

An interesting night, though I did not end up with what I had come for, I did end up with the pleasure of finding another treasure.

**TheNewAbomination**

A shadow lurked in the darkness that made up the empty cavern. It had once held the Master's essence before, it would do it again. There had been a short time not too long ago when the Master had spoken freely with his Emissary in this abandoned cave. The shadow now stood before a wall scorched unexplainably black. On the one wall and only a small portion of it appears so. But it was here that the shadow began to draw several signals in the ash clinging to the wall. Soon, times would be like before. Soon, the Master would rise again and chaos and despair will run rampant among the human world.

And this time, the _obstacles_ would be dealt with beforehand. No one will stand against the Master. No one will be able to save the world from complete annihilation. This time, there will be a new abomination. And this time, the Master will not fail.


	7. If's are Doubts

Chapter Seven: Ifs are Doubts

I, Maeve of Azerath, found that I absolutely _adored_ bread. It was an absolute wonder to me how many different ways it could be made and the variety of toppings made for it. All the sections were the same in that one aspect. They all had bread and they all tasted different. The Seventh somehow found means to sell every kind of bread I'd ever tasted and many I'd never even heard of. Like pumpernickel… It was an amusing word and a delightful flavor! In the several weeks I lived on Earth I decided that tasting each and every one of Earth's breads before I died was to be my goal in life! It was going to be my most noble of accomplishments.

Today, the day after my midnight excursion with the mysterious Red-X, I miraculously convinced Beast Boy and Raven to escort me throughout Jump City's bakeries. Beast Boy had been easy to bring along and I enjoyed his company, Raven had skepticism bleeding out of her eyes by the time I finally managed to drag her along. Clearly my sister did not enjoy the finer things in life, like enjoying the sunlight, fresh air, stretching out her legs, or baked goods. Raven had to come along though; it was the only way I was going to get out of the Tower. She had the cuff, not Beast Boy. This predicament had been my selling point in encouraging my little sister into coming with.

The smell of baking bread was probably my second favorite thing in the world. Apart from the cold metal of a blade against my skin of course, bread and its scent place a great second in my life. More good news to celebrate about, my weapons were back! The amount of heated debating with Mr. Team-Leader had be exhausting, but oh-so rewarding. Even if it were only my three-pronged sai and the hidden blades on my wrists, that was enough of a win to me. They were my everything, the parts of me that I would never cut out. The only reason I'm sure the kid returned my blades was because I had potential to wield dark matter. Which scared the stars and stones out of all the titans. But they sure weren't alone in that fear. I was scared "shitless," as I've heard it said. I've been in plenty of hard scraps before, but nothing like dark matter ever came to my aid. That's how one gets scars…

Another reason for my outing into the city's fabulous bakeries: the new training Raven was going to have to give me to _control_ my dark matter was not something I looked forward to. She had believed the ability was living dormant inside of my soul, or something, when we first met. She didn't really think it was possible to awaken it. I figured it was because my blood called to her blood. Rokakas were superstitious just like every other species out there. Since it was a race made up of different races, we- Rokakas believed that the potential of the Rokakas' way of life called out to each other. There were no weak hearts living amongst the clans. Strong males and females moved into the way of life and most of they simply _knew_ it was their calling. Others, like myself- had been- were born into it and simply _knew _of nothing else.

Raven thought about my theory. She deemed it plausible. I had never been around another Azerath since my purchase, so I never felt the need to learn or use my dark matter. Since I was Raven's sister, and our mom was a high priestess, I apparently had a great ability at bay. This little tidbit pissed Mr. High-and-Mighty greatly. Now, if I wasn't before, I could be a potential threat. Super, wonderful goodies all around…

Of course the little stunt I pulled with the last pair of cuffs was definitely enough to have me "grounded" as the slang applies. Robin found out the second after Red-X took off what I had done. Since Raven had clearly told him that I was out of range of their cuffs but somehow I was unexplainably not in any excruciating pain when they showed up. And when The Boss asked for an explanation, my pettiness that motivated me into stealing the cuff suddenly appeared meager and pathetic, but it saved my ass. I would not be succumbed to that pain again. If there was a way around the First, I was the best candidate to find it. So it was hard to take his "disappointment" to heart.

But for now, I was eating a cinnamon muffin with butter and sugar on top. Nothing but utter bliss for today. The only thing Raven could give me. She rarely spoke to me now, but with the "awakening" inside of me, I figured we were going to be doing a lot of talking in the next few weeks. There was nervousness to be said about that. Why I was nervous about spending time with my sister I could not say, but it was there and pressing against my mind nonetheless.

Beast Boy no longer found my company awkward. He actually regarded my sudden ability "awesome to the max." Cyborg congratulated me too, but almost regretted it when Robin blew a gasket (I marveled at my adaptation to Earth's silly metaphors), which was why Beast Boy was with me and not the metal man. He seemed like the most accepting to my companionship and truly related to the boxed-in feeling I was ailing from while I stayed at the Tower. The changeling also found my love for bread rather amusing. The fact that he was the only one who could coax a smile out of Raven, a marvel in itself, (one that I also tended on capturing today) might have something to do with my pick in escorts.

"Come on Rea!" Beast Boy grinned ear-to-ear as he waved a piece of lemon pound cake in front of her face. "I know you like lemon. Don't deny it!" He arched his eyebrows and moved them up and down. I gawked at his actions.

"I don't eat cake Beast Boy." Raven commented to her book. She found my company boring and Beast Boy's unworthy so she brought the book along to keep herself occupied while I dragged her around the city. I knew she didn't hate it. She liked tea and ordered herself a Styrofoam cup at every bakery so far. But a cup of tea was not satisfying the changeling.

"That's a lie Rea." His little nickname for her did not go unnoticed by me either. As far as I could tell, he was the only one who called her that.

"What reason would I have to lie to you?" She question obviously uninterested in the conversation and the cake that still hovered around her face.

"I know you eat cake, and I know you like lemon." This amount of information seemed to please him greatly. I wanted to laugh, but I wanted to see how this would end more so. And since my presence was being ignored I figured I could witness the whole thing like a… fly on the wall..? Sure, that sounds about right…

"And what makes you think I want a piece of cake?" Raven was smirking at her book now. Something told me the book no longer held her attention, call it an inkling.

"Come on, everyone wants cake. It's like crack, but you know, legal." His impish grin was becoming rather appealing to me. The green human was an interesting specimen. He was fit and active and had a killer smile in his arsenal. What woman wouldn't be attracted to such a man? I glanced at Raven; she was trying oh-so hard to stifle her smile.

Finally, she looked up from her book. She had a finger to mark her place, so she meant to go back to it eventually, but for now all her attention was on Beast Boy. "Alright, I'll bite. Why are you giving me cake?"

"Because all you get is tea. And when you're at a bakery, you should sample the bakery's goods. It's only polite." The woman raised an eyebrow at him. "Plus I _know_ you want some. Go ahead, this piece is all yours. I had to fight a crazy teenager to get you the last lemon cake, don't go and waste all my efforts." His silly grin spoke nothing of the trouble he received. Why did he lie to her?

When Raven smiled I think I knew.

Her smile really was beautiful. She seemed to have lightened the small and slightly crowded bakery with it. I felt my heart lift with a small sense of joy. I had never known joy before, but I imagined it was like this- but times by one hundred. And it affected Beast Boy, too. It was hard to tell but I saw a mild blush on his green cheeks. _Interesting…_

Raven took the slice off of the plate and bit into it. It was a small, modest bite, but she hummed happily nevertheless. "You're right, it is good. Thank you."

I suddenly felt like I was intruding on something now. The inner relationships of this team of heroes were beginning to confuse me. Starfire liked Robin- though I doubt I'll ever fathom why- and Robin… favored Raven to the princess. But Beast Boy obviously enjoyed Raven's company more so than any of the other Titans, though he did pick Cyborg's company over my sister's sometimes. Raven didn't select a favorite, as far as I could tell. At the moment, I figured I was her favorite. But that could because I'm her lost-sister that was once a super awful criminal and was here only because our mom said that the scariest thing to have every _breathed_ is coming back to claim the Seventh Section in vengeance and I was necessary to stop the end of the world… Perhaps I'm biased…

I sighed and the two looked at me with mild alarm, I knew they had forgotten about me, which was fine. I got to see Raven's smile, so the day was a complete success in my log. "I don't think I can sample any more of Earth's greatest food." I commented as I stared at my empty plate, to my surprise even the crumbs were licked clean.

Beast boy grinned at me, but it did not hold so much lethal charm to it as the one he shot at Raven. Maybe it was for the best. The changeling was attractive, and I rarely ever find men that I could consider attractive. I did not need the confusing aspect of attraction and favoritism to cloud my judgment. "I figured sooner or later that would happen. You can't sample _every_ one of Earth's breads in one day. That's utterly impossible."

"If you make it sound like that, I might think you were challenging me." I smirked. I grew up in the mindset that I was never allowed to have a favorite. The Mother was cold and hard, an unmovable and untouchable force. There was no place for a favorite; thus why Mothers took a girl-child within the clan, or bought one off of Azerath and caused the bloodiest battle ever off the records. No one cared enough of the Rokakas to record the Clan War.

"No. No. Not a challenge, it's advice! You know the saying about slow and steady?" Beast Boy laughed somewhat nervously, but now I knew it was an act. The man didn't think I would hurt him. Or maybe he _knew_ deep down that I wouldn't. I didn't _want _to hurt him perhaps that was enough.

"No. I am not familiar with that one." I frowned. Was there _really_ so much to learn about Earth?

"They say that slow and steady will win the race." Raven answered good-naturedly enough. She was back into her book but seemed to be more involved with the two of us. Tactical decision, thy name is Maeve. Bringing Beast Boy along proved to be more successful than I had hoped.

"That doesn't make sense." I countered.

"Frankly, it doesn't to me either." Beast Boy shrugged. "So would you like to try another bakery? Or would you like to call it a day?"

"Please tell me you've had your full." Raven exaggerated her exasperation.

I faked nonchalance. "We could go to a grocery store and buy some bread." I offered.

Beast Boy chuckled, "Bingo! Why didn't _I_ think of that?"

"Because you don't think, remember? We've had this conversation." Raven said casually as Beast Boy narrowed his eyes at her and his ears drooped.

"That's not nice." He muttered in a sulking manner.

"To the grocery store it is!" I announced and began to exit the establishment. As I moved to stand on the sidewalk and wait for my escorts, I felt the obvious censor in my fight-or-flight mode kicking into high gear. Someone was watching me.

I didn't want the others to know, they didn't seem to have sense anything as we all moved up the walkway. They were arguing agreeably and were caught in their own world again, a world I had no part in. Cautiously and without sudden movements I scanned the area. I saw him across the street, the sunset shading the alleyway in between a florist's and a small electronic store. Although his mask was different, thanks to the damage it took from when I sliced it with my dark matter blade, I immediately recognized the man staring right at me as Red-X. I narrowed my eyes at him to subtly let him know I saw him. That brought a sly smile across his lips, which I could now see. The refinished mask reminded me of a saber-tooth tiger that I read about in Earth's history. His mouth and chin and part of his jaw were visible, they were framed by two sharp points from the original mask that still mirrored a skull.

Why was he following me? Was he insulted because I fought him and won? Was this about the flash drive I stole back? Did this guy purely looking for revenge because I bested him? I remember his stunned body language when I fought him hand-to-hand. I surprised him with my skills. Was this because I had intrigued him somehow? I understood that he was an accomplished fighter as well. He was amazing, if I spoke in light terms.

He had a cuff on him so he might be able to track me; the general had been fuzzy on the details of how the contraption worked. But out of all the people that he could stalk, I became worthy of his attentions, I never believed in coincidences. This fact almost gave me great excitement. Back in the old days, I would have sought this man out and tested his skills till one of us submitted or died. I more often-than-not ever found an opponent who submitted, but they weren't rare. Usually they wound up swearing their undying loyalty to me… But that had been back _then. _I was no longer that person… I was trying really hard not to be.

As we stared at each other from across the street, I felt like I connected with this shadow-man. He was a temptation, nothing more and nothing less. The dark desires deep inside me called out to Red-X and I wanted him to answer that call. I wanted to fight with him one more time, to feel his blades against my own, to know shocked silence as we awed one another's footwork, to have this man at my mercy. The sudden and furious sensations gripped my breath from me. I would have nothing to do with him. I should have nothing to do with he who wore my temptations on his sleeve.

So I turned very carefully away from the shadow-man. I know the saying about temptation: to avoid it at all cost, or something leading to that conclusion. And that would be my code of will now. Red-X brought to light certain parts of me that I could never be rid of; he dragged them to the surface with brutal force and cold calculated efficiency. And he didn't even know he was doing it. A cold shiver raced done my spine. He was still watching me, Raven and Beast Boy never even faltered. They could not sense the danger the shadow-man wielded. They did not understand the lethal dose of chaos he could control. They probably would not be able to do anything if he came like the shadow he was and unleashed that destructive force without a care to his name.

Red-X's prey had been targeted, and he wanted to give it a fighting chance. Because that was all this was about: a fight between two very deadly and very experienced fighters. The game was set: the pieces were about to move. Soon, I knew no amount of evasion would save me from the temptation he offered. Soon, I would feel that man's weapons against my own. And soon, very soon, the two of us would be locked in this seriously deadly game and one of us would be the winner and one of us would either be submit or dead.

"Don't touch that!" Raven cried as she grabbed the white text book from me and threw it back into the chest it had been sealed away in. I stared at her in shock. "You are to _never_ touch this chest, Maeve. You understand?"

"Yeah. I got it. Never, ever." I held my hands in a defensive maneuver. Had my little sister just lost her mind? "Though, you know no harm ever came from reading a book." I said.

She glared at me. "There is a very pissed off dragon that I sealed away into this book a long time ago. Don't touch this book."

"Oh. That bad, huh? Ok. I'm sorry Raven."

"How did you even open the chest? I know I locked it tight."

I laughed nervously, she would not like this one, "I sorta picked the lock."

"Sorta?" What do you mean 'sorta'?" she questioned.

"Well, I heard this voice, which the 'pissed off sealed away dragon' explains," by the anger radiating off her I knew I was seriously busted.

"And you figured it would be ok to _listen_ to voices in your head?" She was going to start screaming now, I could feel it.

"I didn't _know_ it was a dragon." I snapped. "Before I knew what I was doing I was opening the chest and when I found the book I figured you wouldn't mind if I read it."

"You thought opening a sealed away book was ok? You didn't think I would _mind_ if you broke into my chest- which is a crime- and read my book?" Oh yes, she was fuming now. I took several steps back; the door was close within my range.

"I know what it looks like Raven, but I didn't mean any harm. I wouldn't have been able to even summon the dragon anyway, I can't do stuff like that."

She narrowed her eyes at me accusingly, which kind of set me off. Did she think I could summon a dragon from a cursed book? "As far as I know, you could." Oh _Siber_! She did! She totally thought I was a crazed mage!

"Well, that's just freakin' great." I snarled at her. "You don't think I have any self-control, but you think I could summon a great and scary dragon, something I've only heard done by highly skilled magicians. I fling knives and I wield blades. I am not into majicks. What happened against Red-X was an accident. It isn't like I'll become a sorceress like you." I didn't realize that I scared her until I took a step toward her the heat of emotion while raising my voice and I saw her flinch an inch away. I stopped and stared at her. I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't even fight with her. I had nothing left in me to say anything. My own blood didn't even trust me.

"You're afraid of me." Solid fact. Nothing more.

She squared her shoulders- which isn't an accurate description, but the metaphorical sense applies. "You have great potential to do harm."

"Without proper guidance, your right, I do. But even Beast Boy trusts me."

She nodded and sighed, "Beast Boy can be a fool." After a beat she continued as if she only then realized what she had said. "I am sorry, Maeve. I haven't been treating you very sisterly, much less civilly. You deserve the benefit of the doubt." She gave me a reassuring smile, not the joyous one in the bakery, but it was enough to let her think I was fine.

"That saying doesn't sound very reassuring," I said. The saying sounded more like she doubted me even more and that I deserved it. Her smile grew a little more real. "I'm sorry I went through your stuff. And for almost allowing a 'pissed off sealed dragon' to be let loose." She actually let out a small chuckle.

"Tomorrow we'll start your training. You may even like it. I think I might be able to understand your dark matter by then. I'll need to think about some things though." She frowned, all serious and no more jokes. "You'll need plenty of rest; I suggest you do that right away."

I nodded and left her room. The sting of her earlier words stabbed at my heart the second I was clear of her vision. She didn't trust me. My own blood couldn't trust me. How much did that bite? Oh _Siber_, this was a horrible feeling. There were other experiences that were a thousand times worst, though. I could- would get over this. Raven didn't think I could do it. Robin probably had more hope than she did, but he was supposed to. If I failed at becoming a law-abiding citizen then it was his ass on the line. I would become his problem, and the First and the Second would absolutely love that.

The roof was empty and I took refuge there to sort out my thoughts, too many problems and too many new emotions getting in the way. When I was at the bakery things felt nice. Normal wasn't an appropriate description for the way I felt today. Normal for me consisted of someone picking a fight with me and blood being spilt. Normal was like when Red-X silently stalked me.

But before that, before I found Red-X, the time with Raven and Beast Boy felt like a world where I had never been a Rokakas. It must have been the kind of feelings that I would have encountered had I not been brought up into a world where crime was the way of life and death was the next door neighbor.

The metal door to the roof creaked open. I winced internally. _Why me?_

"Oh. I did not know you were up here." Great. And it had to be the princess, too. Fabulous.

"I'll leave if you need the space." I muttered.

"No. I have been meaning to speak with you." Starfire said in a haughty voice that sent my skin itching. "I want to apologize for my behavior to you. Ever since the 'Tin-man' came to arrest you, I have been an unfit ambassador of my planet to this one. My hosting was been poor." I raised my eyebrows and almost scoffed at her. She sounded like this was physically painful to be apologizing to the likes of me.

"You see, I too have an older sister. She came to Earth claiming to be visiting me. But that had been a lie she told me. She came to Earth hoping to frame me for a crime I did not commit and one that she had. Robin allowed for the authorities to take my older sister away. He never gave her the second chance he has given you. For that I became unreasonably jealous. My sister does not wish to become a good person. She enjoys inflicting pain and suffering wherever she goes. Because she is royalty your… people would not allow her to join." She toned down her arrogant tone and sounded truthfully mournful of her sister's fate. I didn't miss the pause before she decided to call the Rokakas "people" of course. "You must understand, what I feel for you is irrational. For this I am apologizing."

"You were upset that Robin gave me the chance your sister never got, that's not irrational. You favor your sister. She is special to you. It only makes sense that you want what's best for her." I felt Raven's accusing words stab at my insides again. I couldn't believe I was trying to encourage this girl with words I didn't even buy.

"As Tamera's future leader I cannot be making such judgments. It is unacceptable." She bowed her head then turned to leave me. I never accepted her apology but that was not the Tameranean way. Even apologizes were made with dignity, Tamera's royalty could not be soiled with a humble attitude. There was something we could relate to.

So I let her go and wondered if she was going to try and force her experimental cooking concoctions down my throat in a "friendly" manner, and if I would be able to survive them.

**TheNewAbomination**

The training room was my sanctuary. There was little peace when it came to being a leader. There was little space in the Tower for me to have my own space. But the training room? This was my spot. This or my… office, where the walls were covered with the Titan's failures and success stories. Most of which were of Slade and the terror he caused and I couldn't stop. However, for this one moment in my crazy life I was accompanied by only the punching bags full of sand and the wooden and metal dummies.

Tonight though, my sanctuary was violated by the bane of my recent headache. Nervously I noticed her watching me at the threshold, but she never moved into the room. She never commented on my movements or when I missed my targets. She must have been there much longer than I knew too, that was the most unsettling part about her. She crept up like a shadow and no one knew otherwise.

"How long till you grow bored and leave?" I asked as I grabbed a wooden bo staff from the far wall and began settling into my exercises.

"It is difficult to grow bored when I find something that captures my attention so unconditionally." She didn't have an ounce of embarrassment to confessing she was "_captured_" by my body. I was glad I wasn't looking at her. I'm not a prune, no matter what Beast Boy thinks, but a deadly woman who never once showed she could be trusted openly declaring her interest in me was still not something I would grow accustomed to.

"I capture your attention, eh?" I'd never let her know she caught me off guard of course. I had a reputation to uphold and all. When her soft chuckle reached my ears, I faltered in my exercise. I had forgotten the next step…

"You do. It is not something that happens often." She was coming closer. "Do you mind?" She had her hand on another staff but she was not gripping it. I nodded without really thinking. Maybe I wanted to learn more about her. Maybe I needed her to quell the upset she had started since she arrived. Or maybe I was itching for a much needed fight.

Maeve picked one up and spun it with professionalism as she tested if the staff would do her well. When she deemed it satisfactorily she stepped onto the padded floor of the half of the training room where I was. She slid in front of me with lithe grace. Oh, yeah, this was going to be a helluva fight.

"Lady's pick." I offered and she tilted her head.

"You may proceed. I would rather not attack you with something that would threaten you because you were unprepared for it." And as her cat-like grin spread I felt the headache make an encore presentation. I rushed her with quick steps and I reveled in the shock that caused her eyes to widen. She underestimated me… Why?

There were blows dealt and evaded and absorbed and traded. By half an hour we had bruises on our bruises and I was thoroughly enjoying the whole mess. Maeve was having fun too. Her grin appeared and disappeared, depending on where she stood in the fight at the time, but as the longer the fight drew out, the looser her attacks became. She wasn't any slower or anything, but she put less impact into her attacks. She was trying not to get caught up in the fight.

"Tell me about yourself." She almost demanded after she landed her aerial evasion of my downward thrust. "Who were you before you came to Jump City, before you met any of you teammates? What were you like?" She ducked from my sideswipe, "Who were your parents?"

"I was a member of the _Flying Graysons_." I answered and wonder why I did so after the words slipped out. I flipped onto my left hand and landed in a crouch to swipe at her ankles. She mimicked my flip and stared at me with her head tilted again. "I was in the circus." I clarified.

"Ah." Her eyes light up. Obviously she knew what a circus was, "What did you do?"

"I, and my family were trapezes artiest." And I soaked in the awe in her face. I jumped high and threw my staff at her from the air. She dodged it but I grabbed the wooden beams near the ceiling and I began to make my way to the staff by using my own momentum to travel from beam to beam. I landed next to the training staff, gripped it, and turned to gauge her reaction. Was I really showing off for this woman?

She rushed me and we went into a series of blocks and jabs. "That must have been wonderful. The circus has a tight networking, like a family."

"Yeah."

"How did you end up leaving it?"

I bought time by focusing on the movements of our bo staffs clashing and the placements of our footing. Finally I said, "My parents and my brother died." Her facial features never even twitched. "I eventually found a mentor who I look up to as a sort of father." I pushed her back and wished for a subject change, or for this woman to suddenly disappear.

"And why did you come here?" She gave me the subject change and didn't even question me about the vagueness of my mentor or my family's death.

"We stopped agreeing on most things, my honor couldn't handle some of his teachings. I couldn't live in his shadow." I realized we were circling each other. Looking for openings and spotting weaknesses.

"So you put together your own team that can live in your shadow?" She was frowning now. I could tell we would eventually come to a conflict.

"No. I don't force my thoughts and beliefs on my team, so long as they understand I am the leader there isn't a problem. There is honor to be said about being a Hero, Maeve."

"You know," She almost snarled the words at me, "there are some born to be leaders. Then there are those who should lead only themselves."

We charged each other simultaneously. There were no more words for another half hour or so, but now our breathing was rough and our actions were growing sloppy and slow. My legs ached and my arms were seriously covered in contusions. My ribs pulsed where she had hit me hard and my headache was thinking about inviting friends over. She looked as beat up. Her hood had been shoved off a while ago and her wild sliver hair flared about her determined face. A mark on her neck was changing colors so fast it was nauseating but it wasn't serious.

I took two steps back and tossed the staff to the wall where all the others were. It clattered loudly on the ground. Maeve did the same and her limbs flowed into a defensive crouch. _Dear God! Did this girl ever stop_?

"No more. I'm done." I said as I sat down on the weight lifting bench. Probably because she didn't know what else to do, Maeve sat down on the bench across from me. The silence could've been worst. I guess we were now aware of each other, whereas before I guess I forced myself to tolerate her. I gulped the water from my water bottle.

"I was born in a world where the only honor was given to the one with the most kills." Her voice was ragged and she was trying hard to catch her breath. "I was not allowed to know Love or Joy. Any emotion that impaired my judgment was taboo. I was trained to become the Mother of hundreds of individuals who grew up with the same upbringings like my own. I had to be better than all of them. I had to gain more _honor_ than all of them."

I stared at her. After a long pause I handed her my water bottle. She eyed it, "According to my kind that is a symbol of trust." I shoved the bottle into her hand. She gulped eagerly before continuing. "I watched my, _family_ die too. During the war, my clan and the other clans came to destroy me because they believed I was soiling eons of tradition. I am all that is left of a feared and dark way of life. But they were my clan. I… favored them." Her brow furrowed in frustration. She handed the bottle back and I took another gulp from it. Her eyes grew wide.

"That was another time. Another place. The point isn't to erase the memories you hold dear of that time. The point is to move forward from that place." I said as I twisted the empty bottle in my hands. "I know it is hard to become a better person. But you _want_ to become better and that is the first step. The next is to act on that want."

She seemed to be contemplating his words. "I don't want to kill anymore. But this hero thing may not be for me."

"We'll see." I gave her a reassuring smile and a pat on her shoulder.

"You are not to give up on me, then." She said, her violet eyes burning into mine.

"Alright, I'll put more faith into you." I answered. It's what I should have done from the very beginning, but my own arrogance was blocking my vision. **He** gave me the benefit of a second chance, why couldn't I do the same for her?

We stood together and she nodded once. "We should…" She gestured to the staffs lying dejectedly on the floor, "Do this again."

I grinned and felt the laugh reach all the way to my toes. "Yeah. We should." I agreed. My laughter must have put her off guard because she was looking at me like I was about to lose it. "Good night." I offered as I tried to hold in my control.

"Good night." Maeve copied and escorted herself out of the room. When the door slipped closed behind her I felt like I could run a marathon. Then pass out and die. I couldn't believe how happy I was now that I was actually acting like her leader and not some insensitive ass-hole. At the same time I felt God-awful about that ass-hole part. How could I leave her alone in the chaos she lived through?

I raked a hand through my shaggy hair. It needed a cut, but I didn't want to deal with Starfire's grooming anymore. I sighed; I should've apologized to Maeve, at least. Of course, there was the outcome that she might not have accepted it. She wanted oaths, they seemed more important to her. I gave her my word to give her more faith, the benefit of the doubt… And I'd make good on my words.

**TheNewAbomination**

It was like saying your prayers before going to bed, or drinking a cup of warm milk. Since I didn't do those things anymore, this was my routine before shutting down and charging my systems. I checked the weather forecast. Yup, that was my secret relaxing technique I used to calm myself into sleep. I did it every night and by now, I could tell you the exact position of absolutely every weather station in the continental US. But, I didn't want to count stations to lull into sleep, tonight I merely check the activity of a selected few places.

There were mild tremors in Lower California, and a serious snowstorm in the east coast. The temperature drop in mid-Texas and Oklahoma was not uncommon this time of year. A low front was covering parts of North and South Dakota and some of Nebraska. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to alarm anyone about.

I turned off my monitors and began to power down, although it took some time before I actually went to sleep. It was nice to know I didn't immediately shut down when my main power source was off, I pretended that I was an exhausted human, a simple and uninteresting human. As I drifted in between consciousness I wondered why one of my monitors turned itself back on and why it was flashing ominously.


	8. The Board When Set

The Board When Set

"I'm telling you it isn't natural!" Bumble Bee, another member of the Teen Titan's but apart of a different team, shouted from the big-screen TV at seven in the morning. "It's only been snowing for three hours and we have seven feet of snow!"

"And I'm telling you there's nothing to be done about it! There isn't anyone who can control winter weather." Cyborg snapped back at the dark-skinned woman. Snapping seemed to set her off more.

"I _know_ you don't know anyone who can control _snow_! But Thunder and Lightning might know someone! I'm telling you to ask them!" She was mixing in between growling and full-blown yelling at the metal man. I cringed from the safest part of the Living Room: the little kitchen. I was sipping tea with Raven before we went to practice with my dark matter. I was also sampling some of the bread Beast Boy had purchased for me. Buttermilk was better than pumpernickel.

"Dammit, Bumble Bee. There isn't anything _wrong_!" I couldn't really fathom how the simple request the woman asked for was getting Cyborg worked into a frenzy.

"I want another opinion. I can't talk to you when you're stubborn like this." She crossed her arms over her fluffy coat and glared at the man.

"Oh man." Beast Boy muttered. He was munching on _tofu waffles_ – not something I was ever going to sample – and sank down lower in his chair. Before I could enquire what was wrong Cyborg began yelling that the woman on the screen. There was lots of swearing involved. I cringed again.

"Chill." Robin commanded. With that one word I watched both Cyborg and Bumble Bee shut their mouths and stare that their leader. "Cyborg, just ask Lightning if there something up with the weather in the east. Those brothers keep a lot to themselves, they might know _something_. Bumble Bee, Cyborg is your superior, I don't care if Titan's East is your team, you will not talk that way with him. _Christ_! We are not children."

With his piece said Robin moved into the kitchen and took the coffee mug Starfire offered him as Cyborg promised Bumble Bee information when he got it and she thanked him. There was silence when the screen went blank. I found new respect for Robin after our sparring last night, though I did not like him any more than before. If he used that voice with me, I would consider listening to him. Because of my attitude, I would only go so far as to consider.

"What was that all about?" Raven asked as Cyborg sat down next to me – the only available seat – and stared at his untouched and now cold plate of eggs.

"Nothing." He muttered.

"I don't want to hear that ever again from you Cy." Robin said.

"Yes sir."

I waited for there to be more said, but there didn't need to be. Cyborg knew who was in charge, and he probably felt pretty stupid for letting the woman provoke him. The work of a true leader.

"Come on Maeve." I looked up at Raven and was about to start an argument when Starfire interjected.

"Oh, may I come watch the training?" I turned to her, about to unleash a pretty nasty remark when Beast Boy's outburst stopped me.

"Sweet! This should be good! Come on Maeve!" He shot up from his seat and sped to the elevator that would send him to the training garage. No. I did not want all of them to watch me.

"Shall we commence with the garbage talk?" Starfire raced after the changeling. What in the name of _Siber_ was happening?

"I could use a distraction. I'll join y'all after I make a call." I glared at Cyborg. I was not some _thing_ for them to look at and entertain!

"Maeve. You can't run from this. I gave you all day off yesterday." Raven's calm voice irked me more. I wanted to hit something. Why weren't any of them listening?

A gloved hand gripped my shoulder. "Don't worry about them. You're like a new toy or something."

"That is _not_ reassuring, Robin." I growled.

"Maybe not, but it's a fact. You can't control them any more than I. Just listen to what Raven says and don't hurt yourself." That made me gape at him. He said to not hurt "myself." Not Raven? He didn't say anything about Raven? Did he trust me? Or did he think I _couldn't_ hurt Raven during the training?

I grumbled all the way into the garage.

"You aren't even _trying_!" Raven called at me from miles away.

"Getting hit repeatedly by a dark matter hand is what you call "_Training_?" I screamed at her as I gathered my feet under me. I ached everywhere. My little exercises with Robin last night had not been the smartest thing for the short run. Oh yeah, I did learn plenty about the guy, but the injuries I received to do so was rather stupid of me.

"You have to learn to sense the matter, Maeve."

"And you have to give me more than that to go off of!" I leaped out of the hand's range and it did a one-eighty to attack me from in the air. With no where to go, I was smacked another dozen feet or so.

"You're beginning to know where it's at least coming from. But anyone with an ounce of awareness can do that." My little sister stated closer to me than before. Which way had that thing hit me?

I rolled out from the outcome of becoming a pancake and ran as fast as I could from the little _neverah_. "I do not call this training!" I shouted without looking back.

"You're afraid?!" She bellowed at me. But she had used that one already. The _neverah_ thought if she exposed my pride as a fearless Rokakas then I would be less likely to flee her training. But I held plenty self-preservation genes. I fell for her tact once; she would not fool me with the same trick again. I'm sure there was a famous Earth-saying about that kind of thinking too!

So I merely sped my pace and made my way for the doors to the elevator. I'd take my chances with my dark matter ripping a hole in my stomach then sit through one this girl's motivational seminars!

"Shove it _neverah_! You're insane!"

But she melted through her portal in the doors. Her real hand outstretched as if to stop me. Her hood had been drawn back, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "We still have work to do, Maeve." She _really _hated her pet name.

"No thanks." I skidded and turned swiftly out of her matter's clutches. "There is no way you were trained like this!"

"No, I went through several different methods. Your matter is different than mine. So I have to treat you like this."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were taking your anger out on me."

"When I get angry, you'll know it."

Her matter became a wall that I slammed right into. She could control it so fluidly. It wasn't fair for her to be attacking me like this. To strip me of my weapons – AGAIN! – had been her first rule. She needed to reenact what triggered the awakening from the first time, and I didn't have my blades at that time. I think she was just trying to make sure I didn't kill her in the heat of battle.

Not that I would, I couldn't kill my own blood any more than she could. But wounding her was not the same as killing her.

With grace I landed in a tight crouch as I eyed my sister. She did not appear to be enjoying herself, so what was all the violence for? The matter was materializing from my left and I rushed towards it this time. Running was getting me no where. I was either going to break a couple of vital bones, or I was going to catch Raven by surprise and be done with this whole nightmare.

There was a split second right before I made contact with her dark matter where I figured I could have made a more idiotic choice, the thought vanished as I brought my right hand up like Raven had and thrust a misshapen blob of my own dark matter into the center of my sister's and shattered its form. The undeniable joy, which forced a crazy grin on me and sent my body into the biggest relief-induced adrenaline-rush ever, did not go unnoticed by the _neverah_.

I shoved a childish finger in her direction and laughed at her stunned expression. "I thought that was why we were here!" I taunted and loved every second of her seething. I should not have taken such relish in my little sister's behavior. But I couldn't help myself. It was like sparring with Arsenal and winning by using a move he didn't know I had.

"Why are you so cocky?!" She demanded as another amount of matter came my way. Black tentacles slithered through the air and I twisted my body to avoid most of them. The ones I didn't wrapped around my thigh and waist and I felt them try to drag me towards Raven. "So you can call it out. Can you control it? Can you use it?" Her glare was fierce and sweat coated her brow.

She had been worried I'd lose control. Did no one think she would?

With a serious amount of force, driven by my will not to be too close to a pissed off magician, I brought down a my dark matter like a machete I had seen on one of the cheesy horror movies Beast Boy forced me to watch. I cut at her tentacles as if they were weak and defenseless vines.

Raven's dark matter recoiled as if I had actually injured something tangible. I stared at my sister's astonished face. "Why are you so shocked?" I snarled. Really, was it too much to ask for a little professionalism? "I'm doing what you're asking of me." Without much thought I began to circle her. Her tentacles twitched and jerked.

She eyed me for every step I took. Her bewilderment was only too obvious as she tried to think of another method to attack me with. I couldn't understand her actions. I was only protecting myself. Now that I knew the matter was there, I needed to use it for my defenses. It was only logical I would use the one thing I had left up my sleeve. Why was Raven so upset?

Suddenly, several dark-enveloped instruments came at me. I couldn't tell what they were; I didn't really stay still long enough to figure it out. By second nature I maneuvered out of most of the debris's way. But I was struck twice and both by massive amounts of weight. When I hit the floor I realized she had tossed cars at me. Four-door sedans, to be precise.

"In _Siber's_ mercy, are you trying to kill me?" My outrage was only barely caged. One more move like that and I might just knock the girl unconscious!

Another handful of sedans sped for me, I wasn't even up yet! It took several seconds before I finally found my footing. With both hands gripping the hot matter I created, I slashed the cars to ribbons. When the dust cleared I was still holding my wild-looking sword. The one I had used on Red-X. The one that moved and breathed with my own heartbeats. It grew when I attacked Raven's cars, but right now it was as long as my forearm. All stealth and lethal beauty emitted from my aura, the dark matter sword pulsed with my hollow breaths.

Raven could not have looked more afraid if she had tried. That kind of fear was potent; I could taste it from the dozen of yards that separated us. In that moment, while I heard the pounding of the other Titans' footsteps as they rushed toward us, I knew what Raven had expected of me. She had expected me to lose. She had expected me to let her beat me into the ground. She had expected complete dominance in this fight.

Because that was what it was now. This was not a training exercise. We were not testing my abilities at all. Raven had craved a thrashing. She had craved for my blood split by her hands. We had fought and I had won. I doubted the others would know that was what had happen, as I locked eyes with my little sister. She would be able to lie, and I would be able to feed that lie. There was no room for anyone else in this fight.

I narrowed my eyes. Our mom had said her dark matter would not be able to harm me. Guess she was wrong there. That woman had not mentioned a lick of my own ability. How much could I trust in that woman's words?

But what I was worried about right now was where Raven's hostility came from. She had been rather accepting of me last night. She had even joked with me. Had that all been a lie? Had she hated me so much?

No. That wasn't it. If that were true, she wouldn't have enjoyed the time at the bakeries yesterday. If she really did hate me, she wouldn't have allowed me to leave her room last night without a punishment or deadly word after my stunt with her book. No. Raven did not hate me.

Then what was this? The training had even started off civilly enough…

"Raven!" Robin's commanding voice did not break our vision as we glower at each other.

"Rea," Beast Boy sounded so lost, "what was that about?"

"Friend Raven, are you not feeling well?" Starfire asked as she touched Raven's shoulder. The girl blinked, and I saw something… _else_ in her eyes. A darkness that had nothing to do with Raven stared at me through her body. It was haunting and not something I had ever witnessed before. The… essence was violent and… hungry…

I knew of this much: whatever had happened between the middle of the fight, and right now, had very little to do with Raven. She blinked again, hard, and the essence was gone.

I erupted in laughter. It was loud and boisterous, and it echoed in the garage eerily as the lone sound in the whole room. "Good goddess!" I exclaimed as I held me sides like Beast Boy did when he rolled on the floor in hysterics. "That was the most fun I've had since I showed up to the ruddy section!" I heaved as I fought for breath. Wiping tears from my eyes I watched the team of heroes stared at me with mixture of uncertainty and horror. "That's what I call a fight! Forget training, I think that might be what triggered the awakening!"

That snapped Raven back to reality. "What?" She looked around her in confusion, as if she couldn't remember where she was.

I laughed harder and pointed a finger at her. "So sly! You knew I was fighting to save my life when I wielded the matter against Red-X! So you figured if you endangered me, I'd be able to tap into myself and control it! So very smart, Raven. Oh, what a clever girl you are!" Quick strides brought me to my little sister; I patted her back slightly harder than necessary. The others didn't know how to react to my behavior so they simply stood still as statues.

"You should watch yourself though," I muttered close to her ear as I moved passed her, "I don't take a threat to my life kindly. Be glad you're my blood. Anyone else is fair game." And I made my way for the doors. That last message had been for whatever was lurking inside of Raven. I could feel several pair of eyes on me. Right before the doors opened I turned back to the group of stunned faces. "I'm going to take a shower. Don't be too hard on her, she was only thinking of what was best for me."

In my room I contemplated what to do about Raven. Never had I witnessed such malevolence from one being before. My little sister did not seem like the evil-type. She had morals and a code to live by. There were limits she placed upon herself willingly. No, what I saw had not been Raven.

What then?

What could be living inside of her? Did she have an inner demon? I heard of stories, but they were mostly vivid retellings of one's dark desires one keeps hidden. There were no such things as _inner demons_. There were… fairy tales…

The problem wasn't exactly what it _was_, but more to the point of what it _wanted_. By the bruises and racing heartbeat, I knew what it was trying to do back in the garage. The supernatural thing inside Raven had wanted to hurt me. And it would have succeeded if my dark matter hadn't decided to wake up and start fighting back.

Which brought a whole other set of worries, Raven's matter should not be able to hurt me and mine shouldn't hurt her. That was what that woman had said. It had even been proven true when I first met Raven. She had lashed out at me and I had been shielded by, what I now figured, my dark matter. So, she _could_ hurt me, in theory. If I didn't defend with dark matter, then I would be hurt.

This was so messed up.

The alarm went blaring and I welcomed the distraction. Quickly I rushed to the living room and found Cyborg yelling at a yellow-skinned, spiky-haired, teenager. The flashing red light did not seem to mean anything to the two as they argued about a woman named "Winner." But Robin silenced them with efficiency and they gave their goodbyes. Did Cyborg have to fight with every piece of machinery? I knew he was putting my Firefly off of his list of priorities, I had thought it was because Robin told him to. Now, perhaps the metal-man hated my Firefly?

"Titan's to the old factories on the piers." Robin announced and we raced to our destination. Starfire, Beast Boy, and my sister took to the air as Robin, Cyborg, and I went for the garage.

I sat in silence with Cyborg in his T-car moments later. He gritted his teeth at nothing in particular. I didn't want to talk to him about his problems. There was probably very little I could about them anyway.

So I wasn't sure what made me ask, "What is wrong with you?" Of course I doubt blaming a man for his own misfortune is not ideally a great means to stoke a conversation.

His response was to be expected, "And what makes you think there is something wrong with _me_? Why is it always_ my_ fault when things go bad with Bumble Bee? Can't a man just let off some steam without getting grilled for it every time?"

"Of course, though I highly doubt Bumble Bee appreciates being your convenient source for letting off steam." I stared out the window. Eye contact was something I should avoid in these types of situations. "But it wasn't just Bumble Bee. Lightning received your foul mood, too. And you were subdued at breakfast." I waited.

"She never calls just to talk. There's always something she needs of me when she calls." He sighed and it was a massive sigh. "I didn't mean to let it out on Lightning, but he said the same thing you did when I talked to him about Bumble Bee."

"You care for the woman. More so than the others."

"Yeah, well, we used to be close. But times change and people change with it."

"What of this 'Winner'?" I asked to ease him off his misery.

He frowned, but he was no longer sighing. "Lightning believes she might know about the strange weather in the east, but she's a hard person to get a hold of. She's a recluse. And he fully believes she has nothing to do with the weather."

"Dead end."

"Yes."

I wanted to jump out of the car and take my chances walking.

"A mysterious person was spotted at the piers." I narrowed my eyes at the window. Why was he telling me this? To be wary? To know what I was fighting?

"And you take house calls to "mysterious persons?" I mocked.

Cyborg did not find any of my humor, "No, there were four dead bodies found inside one of the factories."

For a moment, I almost scoffed. But then I remembered where I was and who I was talking to. "So you just rush straight ahead with not much to go on, other than it's a killer?"

"In my book, that's all I need to know."

Mercifully we reached the piers. I jumped out of the car much more enthusiastic than necessary, maybe. Space, I needed space from Cyborg. The feeling that I was an interesting bug under his microscope slipped through my mind more than once. Maybe my dark matter would allow me to fly, like Raven. One could only hope…

The Factories were not vacant, in fact in looked more like the beginnings of a Nickleback concert. I smirked to myself; I really was getting better at learning the trends and times of this section. There were police officials everywhere, a nervous place for Rokakas. Civilians crowded around the yellow caution tape to catch a glimpse of a corpse. Odd, how humans find such devastating situations fascinating. Vehicles were parked for miles and I turned to Starfire who was the closest to me, "Why are there so many people here? I thought they were abandoned factories."

She shrugged and floated over to Robin and Cyborg who were heatedly speaking with the officials. I hung back with Raven and Beast Boy, but I could hear everything just fine. There had been some kind of party going on here. The four corpses, all male, had been teenagers apart of the festivities. Some kind of animal, bigger than a wolf, ripped their hearts out. And only their hearts were missing.

"I want to see the bodies." I demanded, interrupting whatever Robin had wanted to say. I wasn't looking at him though. This territory belonged to the officials.

"Why?" The others asked. Starfire looked sick, had she never seen a corpse? Beast Boy looked pale. Raven probably wanted to put a leash on me and haul me back to the tower. Cyborg gave me a calculated glare. Robin didn't give me anything.

"I want to see them." I repeated to the police official.

She glanced at Robin, "She with you?" He merely nodded. "You a forensic specialist?" She turned back to me.

I wasn't sure what that meant, "Not really, but I could be. I've seen plenty of death; I may be able to help."

"You know what steals hearts from a seventeen-year-old boy?" The official did not look pleased at all. She didn't seem like the type to grow emotional over her work, but they were children. I learned that humans, both male and female, could become rather unstable when children were hurt or killed. That's why I didn't call them corpses to her face.

"I won't know until I see the damage."

She turned back to Robin, "She's your responsibility. If anything messy happens I'm holding you, Robin, accountable." She glared at me, "This way."

"That seems to be the way of it." Robin growled. He was staring at me without any emotion however. Was this his "game face" for the officials? It made him more intimidating and the police men and women spread from him as he followed the woman.

Only Robin and I moved towards the black bags. I leaned over to him, "Why aren't they coming?"

"It's against Starfire's culture to look upon a dead body. And Cyborg is interrogating the other kids who were here. Raven, I think, is squeamish around death." I almost laughed, but I remember where we were and restrained myself. "Her people honor those who have passed with a dignified ceremony, once the body is dead; it is no longer of any importance. It's like a dried up vessel, or something. And Beast Boy says the smell gets to him." His eyes narrowed as we reached the corpses. "What about your kind?" He asked when the official left us, though she didn't go far.

"Rokakas believed the greatest honor was to kill, we don't hold death in any high regards, and there are no celebrations except for the Mother's death. But that's more like an initiation for the new Mother. It's apart of life. We are born. We live. We kill. We die." I could tell my words bothered Robin. "I…I mean _they._"

"No. That is apart of who you are, Maeve." The man crouched beside the first body, "Don't forget that."

I nodded as I hunkered down next to him. He lifted the material concealing the body and I held my breath. It wasn't the worst corpse I'd seen. Everything from the neck up was perfect. The body was pale, but it only looked like the man was sleeping. There was no blood or dirt in his hair and his face held no cuts or bruises. But that was all that was peaceful about him.

A gaping hole, the size of my fist, showed mutilated flesh and muscle into the body, about as deep as my wrist. It reeked too. I could understand Beast Boy's hesitation now. The changeling had animals senses in him, if I gagged on the stench, then he would have passed out from it. But I overlooked the smell to examine how amazingly thorough the beast had been. There were no claw marks, not one slash or gash. The corpse was clean except for the rotting hole where his heart should have been. I moved closer and checked to be sure there really wasn't a heart. There wasn't. The veins and arteries that connected to the organ were still oozing blood. But even the extraction was clean.

"They're sure it was an animal and not a machine?" I questioned quietly to Robin as I covered the first kid and moved to check the next.

He was standing away form the bodies now. His arms folded across his chest, "No, no one's claimed to have _seen_ anything. Why?"

"It's too clean." I muttered as I placed the material over the second body. It was in _exactly_ the same shape. "The bodies don't have any other marks on them. The cause of death appears _precisely_ the same on every one. There are no defensive wounds that I can see and the extraction is cut very nicely." I watched him cringe at my word choice. "Not nicely, I mean…"

"No, I got it. Do you think it was a machine that did this?"

"Well, even if it was, the kids would have been able to fight back, or someone would have heard it. There aren't many machines that could work without making any sound."

"What about the Tin-Man?"

I shook my head, "The First would not kill anything from the Seventh."

"No, could something like the Tin-Man do this?"

"Unlikely. Something of the Tin-Man's caliber doesn't take children's hearts."

"Do you know of anything that would need a child's heart, then?"

I wondered briefly if he really thought that I hung out with heart snatchers on a daily basis. But I did say that I might have been able to pinpoint the killer from my own experiences with death. "I know of a couple of creatures that eat hearts, most of them live in the Sixth. They don't hunt in the Seventh because they are pretty primitive and stick to their planet. There are others, but they wouldn't be so clean with their meals." I gestured to the black bags, I already examined them all. "This looks like a ritual hunt to me."

Robin's spine straightened, though I wasn't sure how since he was so tense to begin with. "Would Raven know of it?" he seemed almost reluctant to ask that question to my sister.

I shrugged, "Don't know. Not all magicians know everything about majicks." I frowned at the corpses, for some reason I no longer wanted to label them as that. They had been children, their moms would be so sad to know of their deaths.

"I do know that rituals can use death as a conduit to perform big majicks, but if that was the case, they wouldn't have left the bodies."

"The police said that the kids heard screaming and found the bodies. Maybe they stopped the thing from taking them." He began moving away from the bags, I followed desperately wanting a shower. "We should see if Cy found anything out."

_We?_ He was including me now?

It turned out the kids did disrupt something. As the shock began to ware, several young girls began describing a shadow that was seven feet tall and had long claws on one hand. There was little else that made sense after that. Their stories began to change and the differences were too wide to tie together. Cyborg did not like it.

"Ring a bell?" The metal man asked me once we moved away from the girls.

"There are all kinds of creatures that are tall with claws." I muttered. I was beginning to grow sick. The sun was shining and I wished that I could simply crawl under my blankets and sleep. I had never actually examined a body before. Once I watched someone die, I left them there.

Starfire sighed, "I do not know of such a creature." She frowned. "Except a Glo-Glo-Max."

"What's that?" Beast Boy asked, the guy looked worst than all of us. He was a pale green-gray and his ears drooped as he covered his nose and mouth with one hand.

"It's a nightmare creature." The Tameranean answered. "It is believed to feed off of our nightmares. Once it is strong enough it comes for you during the day and eats your heart." She shivered, "I was told if I ate my Globax, then the Glo-Glo-Max couldn't get inside my dreams."

"Eat your what?" The changeling asked.

"Eat her vegetables." Raven answered. She groaned and pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead.

"A headache?" Robin asked.

"I'm fine," my sister said.

"I don't think this was a nightmare, Star." Cyborg frowned.

"It could be a doppelganger." I said suddenly.

The Titans stared at me. "Those aren't real." Robin said immediately.

"Sure they are." I snapped.

"No, they are apart of science-fiction." Beast Boy muttered.

_Science-fic…_ How could there be science-fiction when all science wanted to do was prove fiction wrong? "They are real." I said again, I turned to Raven. "And you know they are." She flinched at my voice but did not say anything. "Come on. They live on your planet, Raven."

"What?" Starfire looked at the other woman. These two were from the same section, perhaps that was where the nightmare terms came from. Because a Tameranean saw a doppelganger and didn't know what else to call it.

Raven narrowed her eyes at me, "There are no such-"

I grabbed her arm and began to drag her to the scene where the kids had been found. Inside one of the factories, where there was very little light. There was practically no blood on the ground, only four small puddles. The stench wasn't nearly as bad here, but it smelled just like the corpses did.

"Tell me what you see, Raven." I pointed to the puddles. She walked past me and glared at them. Starfire illuminated a green orb around her fist to give more light.

"There is nothing her Maeve." She snarled.

"Yeah, isn't that convenient? No DNA at all? No hair samples? No foreign blood? No skin follicles? Isn't that odd?"

"She's right." Cyborg agreed as he stared at his sensors. "There's nothing here but the four traces of blood from the victims."

"Guys, I don't feel good." Beast Boy muttered.

"Do you smell anything other than human blood?" I asked carefully. I didn't want to be short with the changeling, he had enough to worry about.

"What?" He seemed alarmed by my question. Did the others never ask him to trace anything before with a nose like his?

"Human blood. You know what that smells like, but is there anything else?"

He looked at Robin, "I don't want to."

"There's nothing we can do for those kids, but we could stop this guy if you can sniff him out. I'm not going to push you Beast Boy, if you don't want to you don't have to. We'll find another way."

The green man clenched his eyes close moved his hand away from his face and took a deep breath. There was a painful pause as everyone waited for his response. After a moment Beast Boy inhaled again. With his eyes still closed he morphed into a dog and inhaled again. This time his cringed and morphed back to tell everyone what he found.

"Nothing."

"What do you mean?" Starfire looked worried.

"Beast Boy, how can that be?" Raven was next to him holding him as he shoved his face into her cloak.

"Only the kids' blood. There was nothing else." Then the changeling ran from the factory. Everyone let him go.

"What does this mean?" Starfire turned to Maeve.

"It means it was a doppelganger. No one has ever seen their true form, they take on whatever suits them best for whatever purpose they set out for." She sighed and stared at Raven. "I believe Trigon used them on you last time."

A collective silence fell around them.

"You mean the evil Beast Boy, Cyborg, and I?" Starfire shuddered. Cyborg took a step back.

"Yes. I read that report a hundred times. I know what attacked you. Those were doppelgangers, young ones. I believe this thing that attacked these kids was a matured doppelganger." She locked eyes with Robin. "I believe it stole these hearts because it is going to use them in a ritual. I also believe that this ritual might bring Trigon back from the Void."

**TheNewAbomination**

I ran without any real thought behind it. I needed air, fresh air. I needed to be in an open space. I needed to get away from the piers. It felt like hours but I had only run for forty-five minutes before I collapsed in the Park of Jump City. Cold grass hit my flushed face and my stomach settle slightly as I gulped in clean air.

Never again. I would never use my senses again! I curled into a ball and dug the heel of my hands into my eyes as hot tears began to sting them. Too involved in my own misery I didn't feel the presence behind me until I was pinned with my back to the grass and my wrist next too my shoulders.

A broken skull masked glared down at me.

"Dude, I don't swing that way." I growl but it probably had little effect with tears streaking down my cheeks and snot dribbling down my nose. What the hell was this guy doing here?

"Don't worry, you're not my type." Red-X snickered and I saw the smirk as I heard it in his over-confident voice. It was weird to see the guy smirk. I had always pictured him faceless. Even when he took the mask off, as I'm sure he did, I didn't think he had a face. Like he was born faceless and it caused his upbringing to be traumatizing and that was why he was a two-faced villain who could play both sides of the game.

"Alright, then get off me."

"Where is the Wild Card?" He demanded, not moving away from me. If I wasn't so shaken from the nightmare in the factory I would have morphed into a water moccasin and bitten him. But I couldn't focus. Truth was I was scared to turn into anything and have my senses overtake me.

"What wild card?" I cried out in frustration.

He narrowed his eyes. "Why are you crying?"

"Did you only just notice?!" I yelled at him.

"Why?"

"Why do you care? Get off!" I morphed into a cougar and he finally moved out of the way with one of his flips. Nausea crashed over me and I morphed back to puke my lunch out. I heaved and my whole body shook. Maybe Red-X got disgusted and ran off. Stupid, flipping, prick.

There was a hand at my back as I puked again. I couldn't even ask the guy what his problem was. If his philosophy was to only look out for himself, then what the hell was he doing? Oh God! What if he did think I was his type?

I shoved the hand away. I didn't matter what Red-X thought, he was a villain and he was Robin's nemesis. "Get back." I growled and it sounded far more animalistic than I had meant for it to. What was happening to me?

"You need a hospital."

"No. I'd be worse there. Small spaces, too many people." I sighed as I felt my empty stomach calm down.

"Then where should I take you?"

"I don't need you to take me anywhere, Dude." With shaky movements I got to my feet. "What the hell do you want anyway?"

"The woman, the trainee, where is she?"

"Uh, what trainee?"

"The woman who fought me and beat me the other night?"

"Maeve? You're talking about Maeve?"

A slow smile spread across him exposed mouth, _creepy_. "Maeve, huh?" He stretched her name out as if tasting something worth savoring. Uh-oh. Did I just do something stupid?

"What do you want with her?" I snarled, it came out in one long ripple of a growl. I fell back to the grass. My body was hot, did I have a fever? I had to. I couldn't even talk human.

"Beast Boy." Red-X was kneeling beside me. "I'm taking you back to the tower, will you be better there?"

"How do you know where I live?" My voice was rough and I was really thirsty.

The guy chuckled low in his throat, "You're delusional."

"Just don't take advantage of me."

"I already told you, you're not my type."

Yeah, I had to have a fever; there was no way I could be joking around with Red-X while he offered to take me home. No way in hell…


	9. Down, Underground, where the Demons Lie

Down, Underground, where the Demons Lie

Two days had past since the murders at the pier. Little activity kept me busy. I either trained with an unstable Raven that only I was aware of and who never showed a lick of the essence from before. Or I went out on patrol with Robin to learn the layout of the city and to give the guy a means of letting off his steam since we could fight on par with one another. It wasn't like my options were real broad anyway, what with the cuffs hindering me and all. A _very_ small part of me wished Red-X had stayed long enough for me to see him when he brought Beast Boy back to the tower. Of course I was not a fool. I still remembered my pact I made to myself: I was not allowed to be near Red-X. The guy was a living, breathing temptation.

But I was – but not really – human. I craved the man's company. But that was all I craved. I itched for a fight with him because he could give a fight that would be worthwhile, especially now that I had some blades on me and some dark matter up my sleeve. Oh yes, it would be a pretty spectacular fight. He was not like the Titans, which may have been why I yearned for this shadow-man.

And the little gift he left for me had nothing to do with my sudden desire to meet the man again. Absolutely not. Not in any shape or form. I did not find the dagger with the engraved "X" on it intriguing at all. No… Not…At…All. This did not stop me from keeping the dagger on me and refusing to take it off, even for training. It was beautiful. The detailing was lovely and the craftsmanship was gorgeous. How could I not fall in love with the weapon? I had it tucked into my red sash with the red and black hilt out for easy access. So the only reason I wanted to cross Red-X again was because he would be the only one I could test such a beautiful blade on. A blade as long as half my forearm with intricate swirls on the blade itself and the guard was really something I could keep for myself. It was a gift for me, who was I to turn such a beauty away?

No one else in the tower saw my logic. Starfire believed I was sick with "love." Which she deemed was a fatal disease that would be the death of me. I had to threaten _her_ life just to keep her from keeping me bedridden. Cyborg pulled me aside and tried to give me "the talk." Which is a traditional conversation between fathers and daughters. Why he was the one talking to me, I'm not sure I'll ever know and it was probably more painful for him than for me since he couldn't finish every sentence he started. Robin was evident in his displeasure of the gift. He claimed that Red-X was courting me. Since I had never been courted I flat out denied his accusation. Raven refused to say anything about it. She did tell me once, however, that whatever I did was my choice and that she did not want to see me hurt. I _am_ the oldest sister after all.

Beast Boy was the only one who never said a thing about my mysterious situation with the villain. He was the one who told me that Red-X had been looking for me and he was the one who gave me the box with the dagger inside. But he no longer appeared to have any harsh feelings towards the man. I completely understood his position considering Red-X carried the changeling home and left him in the infirmary. There was also the small fact that he never spoke a word of what Red-X said to him other than the part about me. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked him to track the doppelganger.

But a pact is a pact. I would not go out searching for Red-X. Not that I would, if I _could_ anyway. With the cuffs it would be near impossible for me to try to scour the city for the shadow-man. Ok, so I had _thought_ about finding him. I wouldn't actually do it. I couldn't do it. But if I could, I still wouldn't do it. Wouldn't I?

I had never been so mixed up about a male in my entire life! The thought had never even registered when I had been a Rokakas. It was forbidden for a Mother to have a favorite. So I didn't favor anyone. I enjoyed Arsenal's company, of course. But he was a trustful ally. He was not a potential favorite or anything. He had at one time swore he would never take his own favorite because it would be nothing more than a distraction. Arsenal's people were allowed one favorite in their lifetime. Humans could have multiple. If one died, it was acceptable to take up another. Humans could even fall out of love. Arsenal's people did not believe so. If their favorite died, then that was the end of it. They were not allowed another.

I wondered if I could have thought about Arsenal as a favorite had I been given the option. But whenever my mind drifted to the man I would only think of him as I last saw him; fighting vigorously against eight Rokakas. He could never be more than my right hand. He would have followed me no matter where I went.

But Red-X was completely different. He was unlike anyone I had met before. He went his own way and played by his own rules. That much was like the Rokakas way, but the villain could even become a good guy if the option helped him in anyway. It was almost like an addiction the way I would dig his files up from the computers and read the reports and watch the security monitors that could capture him. It was my secret pastime. When I was bored or couldn't sleep or when I merely had time by myself, I would take a portable communication device – or a lap top – and I would lock myself up in my room and immerse myself in the enigma of Red-X.

It was probably unhealthy. But I couldn't do anything about it. Our fight made me aware of him. His gift triggered my fascination with him. And when I was fascinated with something I wanted to know _everything_ about it.

**TheNewAbomination**

"What happened?" I asked Robin as we stared at an enormous hole in the ground in the middle of Old Jump. Thankfully there weren't any innocents nearby, but that also meant there weren't any witnesses either. How could no one see what caused a ten-foot diameter hole in the ground? It was deep, traveling miles and miles into the planet. Cyborg's scans told us that it eventually _did_ stopped and Robin wanted to do something called "cave diving."

It sounded intriguing-enough for me. Starfire would fly down first and provide light as Cyborg stayed on the surface to watch monitors that all of us would be hooked up with. Beast Boy was already morphed into a bat to check the cave while the rest of began attaching the ropes to our harnesses.

"It wasn't a drill, too noisy. My guess is that it came from below and traveled up." The team leader offered.

"But what was it?" Raven inquired, "There haven't been any kinds of strange activity up here and no one has reported anything."

I shrugged, "Maybe it's invisible."

Robin looked grim, "Can these doppelgangers turn invisible?" He already knew that couldn't be true. For the last two days Raven had pulled out every text she had on doppelgangers and Robin made everyone read everything they could to prepare themselves. There wasn't much to prepare against a creature that simply needed a touch, flesh-on-flesh, to learn everything about you. From your greatest fears to what your dead mother looked like, if it could aid the doppelganger then it knew it. The younglings that Trigon used against Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg the last time did the easiest trick in the book: they copied their opponent exactly. Their memories and deepest emotions were at the doppelgangers' beck and call.

"All right. Are y'all ready to go?" Cyborg came up and rechecked our harnesses. "Remember, I've got visual and audio. But things will get fuzzy the farther you go."

Robin secured his helmet and I followed. We each held up a thumb – which was a form of agreement. Then we jumped into the gaping blackness. I cried out in pure adrenaline. It was a wonderful experience; it made me think of the Wild Section. Fresca would have loved this!

The fun was over too soon and we began to carefully drop farther down. Starfire had green orbs covering her hands as she floated downward at our crawling pace along with Raven. I didn't bother thinking on how silly she looked as she almost clung to Robin. He didn't seem to notice.

"So we just go in and look around, right?" I asked because I was tired of everyone's quietness. Which is an oddity for me.

"Yup. In and out. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom." Cyborg's voice answered in the radio in my helmet.

"Whatever that means." I muttered.

"We'll be quick and try not to leave any trace behind." Robin clarified.

"Does it always work that easy?"

"No." Raven deadpanned but she didn't sound too worried.

"What will we do if there is some one at the end?" Starfire's voice quivered.

"What's the matter your majesty? Afraid of the dark?"

"Of course not, companion Maeve." She huffed, "we should be prepared for The Worst."

"Stop tormenting Star." Raven said offhandedly, as if she cared less what I did. That seemed to be the way she took now-a-days.

We reached the bottom and disconnected ourselves from the harnesses while Robin updated Cyborg. The ground was smooth; no drill could have made such an even cut, not from the Seventh or any other section. We began walking the only way to go, at a neat ninety-degree angle turning east. So back in the direction to the tower. Odd indeed.

We walked for thirty minutes without much excitement. The tunnel never turned off its path. It didn't even turn at the slightest curve so that we wouldn't notice. We were definitely heading in a straight path. Where did it lead to? What was at the end of it? Maybe Starfire was right, maybe there was something nasty living underground. We were trapped if it came in through the hole, and it would take far too long to reach the exit if it came from the direction we were heading for.

A shrill cry came from several feet in front of us and we rushed to the spot where a green bat greeted us. Beast Boy quickly shifted before he spoke, "It goes on forever. Like forever-forever. I don't even know how long it'd take us to get to the end. Dude, I don't even know if there _is_ an end!"

"I doubt it can keep going forever." Raven rationalized.

"You want to turn into a bat and use your sonar and prove me wrong?" he eyed Raven with a heated glare. "That's right, I forgot. You can't turn into a bat, so you can't use sonar. Sorry, my bad."

"Beast Boy." Robin chastised. "Bickering is not helping. Did it keep going straight? Where were you when you stopped?"

"In the middle of the city. And yeah, it just kept going. There wasn't a chasm or a cave or anything. Just the one lone tunnel going forever that way." He pointed behind him and huffed a deep sigh.

"What do we do now?" Starfire asked.

"Did you get all that Cy?" Robin ignored her as he talked to the metal-man.

A small gust of wind whipped past my ankles. I raised an eyebrow as Raven came to stand next to me. "The portal that allowed Trigon out the first time came from underground. He used the heat in the center of the planet to gain energy to make the crossing." She said with a guarded expression, "In an underground system he talked to Slade and organized his minions."

"Are you saying that this tunnel might lead us to the doppelgangers?"

"I think we should check it out to be safe."

"Cause of what the next ingredients are for the ritual?"

"Yes."

I sighed. No, nothing ever went according to plan. I rarely ever used a plan for that reason alone when I was training under Fresca's guidance. "Alright. But how are we going to get there faster?" My little sister pondered that for some time while the other began deciding to leave. "How about my ship?" I offered.

"What about it?" Raven was still thinking intently.

"We can travel in my ship down here. It was designed for stealth. It's small enough to fit in here and all of us will be able to fit into it." I slammed my fist onto my palm. "That's it!" I immediately turned and proceeded to leave the tunnel. The others heard what my plan was though I wasn't really talking to them anymore. Although plans had never been my forte, it wasn't like I didn't know how to use them properly.

**TheNewAbombination**

"I can't believe you '_updated_' my ship!" I growled for the twelfth time. Cyborg had been so fed up with my baby that he simply started taking parts off and replacing them with parts he was more "_familiar_" with. I couldn't understand why he couldn't have just asked me what to do. Apparently it's some sort of disease all human males carry. They cannot ask for directions and they cannot ask a woman for help in the garage…

And there wasn't a cure for it!

"I told you, it runs better and it doesn't shock the living daylights out of me!" The metal man countered _again_.

"Better, according to whom?" I snarled under my breath, loud enough for him to hear me though.

"Look, you wanted it fixed-"

"Yes, fixed! Not remodeled."

"Are they going to do that all the way there?" Beast Boy whined to Robin from the makeshift seats in the back of my baby. It hadn't been made to carry more than a pilot and a co-pilot, so some _more_ alterations had to be made. It wasn't made for underground traveling either, but it was small enough and fast enough. All of us finally were able to explore the tunnel and find what it really was.

Since no fire of death was coming to claim my soul, I figured it could possibly have nothing to do with Trigon and leave the matter to giant earthworms. But just because I couldn't see or feel the fire, didn't mean it wasn't on its way. The ritual to open the Void was a tricky one that took time and patients and precision. All of the above are not things Trigon has at his disposal. He was royally pissed at the Titans and beyond so at his daughter. He would want to get out as soon as possible.

That would mean that the doppelganger would need to acquire a sacrifice to take his place in the Void. Willing or not had little to do with the ritual, so long as _someone_ was in the Void when Trigon got out. Raven was worried the most about this part. She knew Trigon would try to use one of her friends to take his place. He was a sick and twisted bastard after all. He might even have his own daughter be that sacrifice.

It was first believed there was no way out of the Void. But from hours of research later, my sister and I were able to scrap up enough information to lead to a loophole of sorts. Trigon couldn't get out unless someone from our side opened the Void for him and dumped something else inside. He could use that portal to get out. But with the ritual the doppelganger was using, he didn't need someone like Raven to open the Void. All he would need was for his doppelganger buddy to do the job and dump someone else in to take the terrible Trigon's place.

One nightmare at a time, I always say.

"Is it soon that we reach our destination?" Starfire asked.

"We'll get there when we get there!" Cyborg snapped back. It had been the forth time someone asked if we where there yet. What an impatient group humans were. It seemed it was contagious to Tameranians too.

"Dudes! This tunnel has gone on for hours!" Beast Boy whined some more.

"Forty-five minutes, actually," Raven corrected. She was gripping the edge of her seat pretty tightly. I accelerated a bit more. Cramped conditions did not bode well on me either. I wanted to get out and kick something _now_.

"There!" Robin shouted. Ahead there was a soft light; I accelerated some more. We rushed into a cavern of some kind. It was vast. The ceiling was at least twenty, maybe thirty, feet high. And there were stalagmites everywhere. It took all my life as a pilot to steer clear of them.

Finally we got out. The air was damp but I couldn't sense any danger nearby. "It's a dead end." I assessed when I took a quick look around. "Whatever made that tunnel started here."

"Is it still here?" Beast Boy asked as he stood at his full towering height next to me.

"Spread out," Robin commanded. For some strange reason I didn't move. There was something… not right about this place. Although that was painfully obvious, it still irked me to no end why I was frozen stiff. It wasn't fear; that made me move far faster than this. No… something was _watching_ me. And it was _me_ it was watching. As the others began checking for signs of life, I could feel eyes on me. Waiting.

And then Raven let out a cry of alarm. It wasn't a scream, she would never scream. When I turned I saw the doppelganger standing over my little sister with nothing but claws and fangs. How could it not have wanted me? I was sure it was waiting for me. So _sure_…

Without thought I charged the creature before it could touch me sister. That was all it needed to use her fears against her. But it wouldn't have time to find me fear if I rushed it. When my body hit the solid object, we flew past my sister and tumbled in a mess of limbs. I kicked it away with a cry of anger and it hissed in pain.

Seconds later found me with my feet planted firmly under me and a doppelganger thirty yards away. Its back to me, it changed. One will never understand how disturbing a change is unless one witnesses it for oneself. My skin crawled and my stomach heaved. The doppelganger had been a four-legged creature of all black skin when it attacked Raven.

Now, its black skin was melting into a coppery-orange, its spine cracked and separated as it grew from four legs to two. Slowly the creature turned to face me, and it no longer was a creature. The doppelganger had pulled a memory from me in our brief struggle and was now the spitting image of Arsenal. My old comrade was staring at me with sadistic hate brewing in his eyes.

And his namesake was strapped to every surface of his body. The bazooka on his back with the spear hook; he had made that himself. There were submachine guns and pistols attached to his belt and a small laser-blade too; the one I had purchased for him when he "misplaced" his old one in some senators chest. Those dark orange, black-slit eyes stared at me for two whole seconds. Right before they slid over to Raven who was somehow behind _him_ and not me.

"No!" I shouted, as if he'd listen to me. It didn't matter though, I didn't make it in time before he had backhanded Raven so hard she flew feet off the ground and several more away from me. Running wildly I was able to at least do something right. Arsenal's spear hook was stuck in my left arm. Stuck good, the bastard wasn't going to be getting it back anytime soon. Quickly, before the searing pain set in, I withdrew one of my sais and broke the chain connecting the hook to the gun.

I could kill him. He wasn't Arsenal. He was a doppelganger who was wearing Arsenal's face. Yes. I could kill him. Arsenal was dead. I watched him die. This was not Arsenal.

For a second there I really did think I could do it, until he talked.

"Maeve, what have you gotten into this time?" It sounded so much like him, like that was something he'd really say to me. He did at one time or another. He would always ask me that when I was little. He had always been there to get me out of trouble.

But this wasn't him…

It wasn't…

He had tried to kill Raven. Arsenal wouldn't have done that.

It was too late. I hesitated when I heard Arsenal's voice. The doppelganger used that moment to its utmost advantage. He charged me and slammed the bulk of his bazooka into my stomach, getting me out of his path for Raven.

Before the creature could touch him, a roar unlike anything I'd every heard resounded in the expanse of the cavern. The high roof crumbled slightly from it, pebbles fell on us. When I glanced from under an arm I saw a great beast guarding Raven. Its white fangs snapped dangerously at the doppelganger, its yellow eyes glared with human anger, its enormous body sheltered my sister from the rocks and from the creature trying to do her harm. I knew it was her guardian.

Beast Boy cared deeply for my sister.

The doppelganger did not find the beast to be a threat. He taunted and gloated as he fired his missiles at it. Not one hit Raven, all hit Beast Boy. He howled in angered fury as blood gushed from several of his wounds.

_Get up!_

I ran for the doppelganger with Arsenal's face, at the last second he turned towards me, but he was too late. I slammed him down and kicked the bazooka away, within the next second I grabbed a handful of his hair and smashed Arsenal's face into the smooth surface. I did it again, and again, and again. I didn't stop until Robin pulled me by force from his battered body. There were four slashes across its chest and its face resembled nothing like my old comrades. They were not the same. This was not Arsenal. I knew that before, but my body didn't. Now I would have no problem trying to kill it.

It chuckled under its breath and I hissed at it, "What's so funny?" Robin pushed me behind him and I felt more than a little upset by the action. This was _not_ his fight.

"You forget," he still sounded so much like my comrade, it wasn't fair! "I don't have limits to my body." He became a blur as he dove for Beast Boy and Raven. The beast deflected the monster.

Arsenal was healed. The claw marks were gone, its face restored. Not a scar remained for proof of the damage we caused. Robin shouted something about an attack at full strength, if they hadn't already been there then what the hell were they doing? These _heroes_ were supposed to keep monsters like that thing away from innocents. Raven was being targeted and it was using Arsenal's essence. It stole my memories of Arsenal and was using them against me.

Cyborg and Starfire shot Arsenal simultaneously and he flew into my range; I attacked without hesitation. We dance the Death's Waltz and it felt like I was back among my people. I found myself enjoying to small familiar feeling fighting Arsenal brought me. So caught up in my foolish thoughts I didn't see the doppelganger grin with sharp fangs. He backhanded me. Arsenal would never use such a pathetic move! But this _wasn't _Arsenal. How many times had I said that? How could I have been so stupid?

The walls weren't as smooth as I had originally thought; when my back collided with the side of the cavern I could feel the bruises overlapping each other a second later. My head was screaming and the spear hook in my arm reminded me it was still there, agonizingly so. Moving at all caused a shrilling sound to echo in my ears. When I stopped trying to get up I realized I had been screaming…

The doppelganger stood above my prone form with that same sick grin, twisting my comrade's appearance. There was the sound of fighting going on behind him, some kind of fire creatures without feet were keeping the Titans from getting close to me. I made eye-contact with Robin for a split second before I gave my full attention to the doppelganger. It kneeled down and roughly yanked my hood back so it could remember my face before it killed me.

Fear caused me to shut my eyes tightly. I shouldn't be afraid of death. Like I told Robin, it was apart of life. It happened and no one could stop it. But in that cavern while a monster wore Arsenal's face as it tried to bring back one scary-as-hell guy from the void, I was frightened.

Nothing happened though. I waited for the cold pain of its claws, but nothing happened. Cautiously I peaked between my lashes and I saw the doppelganger staring at me with a look of utter horror. That took some consideration, it was more afraid of me than I was of dying. I stared at it fully and tried to move again to gain the upper hand and attack while it was preoccupied. But my body was still in too much pain to move. And that one chance I had at getting out of here alive swept out from under me in a flash.

With a mixture of horror and disgust the doppelganger pulled out a dagger from behind and held it high above my chest. "Spawn of my lord!" It hissed, sounding like the nightmareish creature it really was, "you must die so that he may live!" This time I grit my teeth to the idea of death. I was still scared like nothing else, but I would not show it. Seconds before the blade touched my skin a red blur collided with the dagger sending it flying out of the monster's hand. It hissed again in frustration, turning away from me to fight whoever disturbed its kill.

Against my body's wishes I forced myself up and moved. I kept myself up by leaning on the wall as I moved so slowly to where Raven and Beast Boy were. The most of the fire-creatures were gathered around them and I was too tired to do anything clever about it. Instead I started hacking at the creatures with a makeshift form of a whip made out of dark matter. Soon I grabbed my little sister's cloak and forced my weight on her.

"What happened to you?" She stared, wide-eyed at my appearance. I could taste blood in my mouth and I was sure I didn't look any better than I felt.

"Just got my butt handed to me." I heard a small huff from the green-furred beast beside us; he was keeping the hoard at bay. "Did he just laugh at me?" I groaned and almost fell to the floor. Raven held me up. "Never mind. Look. I know what the doppelganger wants. It needs to kill you or me to open the portal."

"Are you sure?" It wasn't the ritual we were expecting. "How could it know you-"

"It knows I'm your sister," breathing was becoming a chore.

"Alright, but-" She looked up to check our progress but something stole the words from her mouth. I followed her stare of dumbfoundment and was shocked at the scene before us.

There he was, all black stealth and deadly grace, as he threw a fire creature at the doppelganger. Nothing seemed to faze him as he didn't wait for the monster to get up; in the next instant he was before the doppelganger and punched it straight in its face. Bone and cartilage tore and shattered and the monster screeched in agony as he grabbed it by its throat and threw it over his shoulder. Like a great cat he stalked his wounded prey with the utmost attention. All sharp focus and murdering aura he pulled out a long red blade and without warning struck the doppelganger twice before jumping out of its maddened rage.

Red-X was a predator. That was no doubt to me now. I couldn't kid myself out of admiring his skill. And helplessly, I would no longer be able to run from his poisonous charms. As he _played_ with the monsters life I could feel the need to fight grow within me. I stood away from Raven and walked with measured steps towards the two.

Now the monster was blinded and missing an arm. It hissed and screeched and no longer made any attempts to be Arsenal. When it finally felt my presence, it snarled and shifted from Arsenal's essence altogether. It looked like the shadow that attacked the boys days ago. It was ten-feet high, its body the color of a pit, faceless, with one hand longer that the other and displaying six five-inch long claws that shined like cold metal. A mouth emerged as the doppelganger roared at me.

I was ready for it when it charged. My dark matter blade cut the harmless arm off, the one it shouldn't have but regained it in its shift. That's all I was capable of doing. Without any hint it passed me by, ignoring its wound, and headed straight for Raven. I was screaming again as everything seemed to move in slow-motion.

Beast Boy got to him a centimeter before its claws touched Raven. He had his jaws locked on the monster's neck. Blue-gray blood spurted from the wound, most drenching the beast. The changeling didn't seem to care though, his grip tightened and the terrified screeches from the doppelganger intensified. In a vain attempt to free itself, it raised its claws to pierce Beast Boy.

Four, red, Chinese throwing-stars were lodged into his spinal cord in the time it takes to blink. The doppelganger fell limply, paralyzed by Red-X's weapons. Beast Boy gave it one final shake to be safe, and then tossed it to the floor like a doll. The beast turned to Raven who had been standing behind him the whole time. I doubted she saw a thing, but she probably knew well-enough of what happened.

**TheNewAbombination**

I stared at Beast Boy without fear. I knew exactly what he had done for me. The bullet holes, the blood, it had been to protect me. I raised my hand to stroke his fury face but he flinched from my touch. It shouldn't have hurt me as much as it did; I tried not to let the rejection show. Instead I patted his arm and moved away from him to stare at the carnage of what was left of the doppelganger. There were four red stars in its spine and I raised my head to find Red-X.

He was standing close to Maeve. He didn't seem in any hurry to leave. I could fathom a reason for him being here, other than the theory that he might be infatuated with my older sister. _Great._

"Is that it? Is it over?" Cyborg asked.

"Oh, I wish for it to be." Starfire shook her head, as if she were shaking off the remnants of a nightmare.

"It should be over." I said. They turned to look at me and I gave them my best smile. "With the doppelganger dead, no one can complete the ritual. My father won't be coming for Earth." I relished in the collective sigh from my friends.

"Well, alright then! Let's go home!" Cyborg exclaimed.

We turned to get back on the ship, but Red-X was in our way. With my sister passed out in his arms. "Let her go." Robin snarled at his enemy. But Red-X said nothing. A second later he disappeared with his teleporting device, taking Maeve with him.

"She will be safe," his voice echoed against the walls of the cavern. We pilled into the ship and Cyborg began flying us back home. I frowned at Beast Boy as he laid his mass against my feet.

"Why won't you change back?" I asked quietly as I reached to scratch behind his ears. Again, before I could touch him, Beast Boy flinched away from me. "Fine." I huffed. "Be that way."

"Raven," Robin said as he sat next to me. "Is it really over? That thing is dead and your father isn't coming back?"

"Yes. It's all over."

"So, Maeve came here to warn us of a great destruction and we stopped it? That's it? A final showdown with the _one_ doppelganger?"

"Yes Robin. I can't see what else can be done. If Maeve hadn't warned us, then we wouldn't have known what was happening all this time. We would have blamed the deaths of those boys on some _human_ psycho and we would have probably been too late to stop the ritual." I eyed him suspiciously, "why? What's wrong?"

"It's just there's a lot I don't get. The strange weather in the east, and there was the prophecy Maeve mentioned when she first showed up. She said your mother said he was going to get out. Like it was a definite thing."

"She said that if he _did_ get out, things would be worse than the first time. But he didn't get out. And blame the weather on global warming." I turned away from Robin. I didn't want to talk about this right now.

"Raven." My leader's eyes softened, "I'm sorry. I guess I worry too much. I'm glad you're OK."

I smiled, "Thanks. I just wish Red-X hadn't taken off with her."

"Should we go after him?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine. He has one of the cuffs after all. Besides, he likes her. At the very least, intrigued by her."

"I don't like it."

"You don't like him."

"You're right about that." He gave her a chuckle, "I suppose since we saved the world again, this calls for pizza?"

"No way, man! I'm makin' waffles!" Cyborg called out.

"Oh glorious!" Starfire giggled, "I will consume a great many with mustard and chocolate syrup!"

A huff of agreement came from Beast Boy who still lay at my feet. "We should get him checked out first." Robin said quietly as he ruffled the beast's fur at the nape of his neck. So he let Robin touch him, but she couldn't?

**So what did you think? Is this the end? Is Trigon still locked up for good? And what about Maeve?! Red-X has her now, what will become of the two of them? Poor Beast Boy won't change back and Robin is paranoid! What will become of the Teen Titans?! **

**Please continue reading this! It's coming close to a close though so watch out!**


	10. The Nature of the Beast

The Nature of the Beast

She was far more beautiful when she was unconscious than when she was spitting fire at me. There was something to be said about how a woman looked while she slept in your bed. It was past the point of treating her injuries, I had already clean and mended and wrapped all of them. Now, I touched her for the sake of keeping the lie that this was a dream at bay. Never had the urge to be so close to another been so great. She pulled me to her without meaning to. She locked me up inside a dark shadow of her soul no other could come close to.

And as I watched her sleep I wondered when the Titans would bust down my front door and steal her away from me. To take this woman into their world of justice and light, to force her into a life she'd never be able to live. I knew it wasn't meant for her. She was my shadow, not theirs. She was not like them.

Her eyebrows twitched and the thought of her screaming at my face made me pull away from her quickly. I wouldn't be able to let her go. I couldn't. Some unseen force was now locking us together. Not such a terrible fate, in my opinion. This woman was darkness in the breathing sense. Slowly she began to slip into consciousness. It was captivating the way her eyes opened and focused on an unfamiliar ceiling. She didn't blink in confusion; she merely was awake in the span of a couple seconds.

"Tell me," but her voice was harsh and cut across my skin, "do you want to die slowly, or do you want it to last?"

**TheNewAbomination**

I stared at the beast in the infirmary with a mixture of concern and bitterness. Cyborg was trying to figure out why Beast Boy hadn't changed back. Soon the test results would be printed out and Cyborg would say that he couldn't figure it out. He'd say that everything was "physically" fine with the guy. He'd say if he could talk to him than perhaps Beast Boy could tell us what was up. He'd say this was all the changeling's choice. I knew all this before anybody else did.

I even knew this before Raven. She hadn't left Beast Boy's side during all the testing and she was trying to make some kind of mind connection with him. Something else I knew wouldn't do us a bit of good. She already knew it was a hopeless endeavor, she couldn't lock with animals. But since it was Beast Boy, it couldn't hurt to try. He wasn't just an animal, after all.

The beast growled as the suction sensors were detached from his fur. I grit my teeth. If this was all Beast Boy's choice, then what was he thinking? How could he choose to leave us for the solitude of a beast's life? Why would he choose something like that anyway? I tried to think if it was because I had said something. Did I push him too hard? Did I encourage his beast more than Beast Boy himself?

As I watched the beast flinch away from Raven's touch, again, I wondered if I should try looking at different angles. Maeve was the one who demand for his transformation at the piers. Beast Boy hadn't wanted to do it, but she said he was the only one who could. She was the one who pressured him to use his beast more than any of them. But the changes in Beast Boy's life weren't a short-term one. Maeve hadn't been here long enough to have caused some kind of life changing alternative for the changeling. But maybe she was the final straw?

I turned away from the glass and found Starfire staring at me with a small look. She had changed too. Not but a year ago, she wouldn't have looked so scared in all her life. I sighed inwardly before I spoke to her, "Beast Boy will be fine, Star."

"It is not Beast Boy I am worried for." She said quietly without breaking eye-contact. When all I did was raise an eyebrow she continued, "I am afraid my time to leave this planet is approaching faster than I would have liked." Finally she turned away from me. There had been a time she wouldn't have done that. "Beast Boy's condition concerns me. However, I have another planet of gagillions of my people who are looking at me to take up the crown."

What was she looking for? I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. It was why I pulled away from her attractions. It wasn't hard to figure out how Starfire felt about me. When she told me she would have to leave and go rule her planet, I was the one who enforced that we never grew too intimate with one another. I couldn't love someone who couldn't give me all of them. And an alien princess was a problem.

"Tell me not to go." She turned back to me with tears in her big, green eyes. I could feel something growing ice-cold inside my chest. It hurt but it wasn't unpleasant.

"No, Star." The look on her face from those two words could have lead some to believe I had killed her. "You're people need you. Much more than I do." And because I couldn't take it anymore, I walked past her and out of the infirmary.

I kept going. Until I got into my evidence room. Where the villains of Jump City stared at me through newspapers and mug shots and crime scene photos. I slammed my fist on the one desk and grit my teeth at how cold my chest felt. It still wasn't unpleasant, but – Christ! – how I wish it was!

**TheNewAbomination**

"Well, Raven, there aren't anymore test for me to do." I said as I looked at the beast curled up by the woman's feet. He appeared to be asleep but I knew tigers were capable of that same trick. I glance at Raven, wary of her next sentence. She had been so irritable since we got out of that cavern.

"And he still looks like this." She gestured to the mass of fur and her eyebrows betrayed her anger. I noticed the way Beast Boy shunned from Raven, while at the same time staying as close to her as possible.

"We just have to wait for the results, ok?" There wasn't much to do now. I already cleaned everything up and put all the tools away. I didn't want to leave BB with an angry Raven, but as far as I could tell she was justified in all her irritation.

"If this is your entire fault I'm going to kill you." I cringed away from how dead she sounded but when I realized she was talking to Beast Boy, I sighed and began to feel sorry for the guy. Girls were so complicated. Which reminded me…

"I need to go check on some things. The result will be printed from there." I pointed to the appropriate machine and she nodded. "Go easy on him, he has to have his reasons." Even though Raven never showed that she heard me, I knew she did. When the time came, she would listen to me.

In my room I called Bumble Bee for the third time. The first time I didn't have anything prepared to say and that would have made me look real bad. The second time I forgot what I wanted to say and I had to hang up before I looked even more stupid to her. So when Speedy answered on the first ring, I wasn't surprised with the look of unhappiness he gave me.

"Hey," was all I could manage.

All he did was glare at me. When I figured he wasn't going to say anything, he moved out of my line of vision. He didn't turn the visual off, so I guess he wanted me to wait. Prick…

I could hear her muttering as she came closer to my view. She looked tired and unhappy. She sat glaring at me with her arms and legs crossed. For a long while I just took in her appearance and thanked God I could still see her. I hadn't thought about saying anything yet, I just wanted to savor this moment for a little while longer. It wasn't like there were many moments when we weren't fighting.

"What is it, Cyborg?" She pressed and it was so close to a growl I had to take a moment to thank God that we weren't in the same room right now.

"I wanted to apologize Bee." I said looking her in the eye. I always got flustered when I talked to her and that was probably why we always ended up fighting. I tried to cover my flustered state with defensive comebacks and deliberately try to pick a fight with her.

"Go on," she quirked a brow at me. She loved to savor my humiliation more than anyone else I could think of.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you. I shouldn't expect you to drop your team for me. I haven't done the same so it was childish of me to think you would do it." She nodded and uncrossed her legs. "I've been under a lot of stress. Raven's sister crashing in, the end of the world possibly, you know. But I've been completely unfair to you." I took a deep breath, "I'm sorry Bee."

For a long while she didn't say anything. Slowly, though, she began uncrossing her arms and she smiled at me without showing her teeth. "Ok. But I'm not letting you off the hook so fast. You've been an ass to me Cy."

"I know. And I want to make it up to you." She quirked her brow again but didn't say anything. "I was thinking of reassigning myself." Her face lost most of its emotion. "I was thinking of moving to the East." I waited for a reply.

Suddenly Speedy, Aqua Lad, Mas, and Menos were all yelling and laughing and approving and become on entire background noise as I watched Bumble Bee's face begin to change. Her poker face melted in the next second as she screamed for her teammates to disappear. When we were left alone, she gave me a very small smile before saying, "I'll have to approve that one, you know? Since I'm going to be you're boss and all."

**TheNewAbombination**

I stared at the test results with mild humiliation. I already knew what it was going to be. Even though he didn't want me touching him, Beast Boy allowed me to scan him with my matter to see if there was anything I could do. I already knew that he was physically fine.

With a heavy sigh I let the paper float to the floor. "You should let me in." My voice was subdued as I muttered at the beast crouching next to me. He was so close I could feel his body heat, but he wasn't touching me. "If you'd let me into your thoughts I might be able to see what's going on. At the very least I'd be able to talk to you." When he didn't do anything I looked up at him.

Six hundred pounds and then some of hard muscle and coarse fur sat next to me with sharp fangs and a vicious fury. But right now, he seemed more like a lost puppy than a scary predator. I could sense that his emotions were a fury of confusion and something strong that overtook all other feeling from him. It wasn't entirely negative, but it did seem to scare him.

"Would you talk to me? Please?" I tried again softly, catching myself from petting him. I didn't want to feel the sting of his rejection.

Beast Boy gave me a small "hmph" of a reply and began to stand carefully. No pain was visible on his face, but maybe he was better at hiding it now. When he got to the door, I realized he wanted me to open it. Where was he taking me? We walked through the halls and past the living room. No one was around to question us. After a moment I understood he was trying to show me something and that it was in my bedroom. As Beast Boy waited patiently next to the door I began to grow unsettled.

"Ok. I'll bite." I opened the door and stepped into my room. Beast Boy entered much more quietly and gingerly than a beast his size should have; he was still respecting my space. I sat on my bed as the beast began sniffing the air to find what he was looking for. It didn't take him long. The rune Maeve brought to me that belonged to my mother was sitting on my desk and Beast Boy picked it up with great care with one clawed hand.

"What does the rune have to do with anything?" I asked as he brought it to me. "It belonged to my mother but -" I was cut off when Beast Boy shuddered violently and the rune began to glow. The metal was purer than gold and rarer than any metal on any planet, but it is not supposed to glow. Then Beast Boy shifted back to human. His clothes were gone completely and I looked away in a moment of shocked embarrassment. That never happened before.

He panted as if he were in serious pain and my heart ached at the sound. I stood slowly and unclasped my cloak to give him as use of some form of clothing. After a moment of the sound of fabric rubbing against skin filling the room, did I finally look back at him. Hunched over his own form and still panting, the changeling looked far too pale and sweaty. Did he have a fever? But the test said…

Beast Boy grabbed my hand that held the rune. He gave me a smile that almost made all the pain nonexistent. "It means 'Guardian,' I'm your guardian, Rae." My eyes widened in understanding. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner. But I didn't even know until a second ago. It told me so." His eyes dropped to the rune in our hands before meeting mine again. They were shining. "I didn't change back because it was talking to me, kinda weird huh? A piece of metal talking to me? But I swear, that's what it did. Not really with words, or anything, but it told me that I was your guardian." His boyish smile was back and it really did look like he wasn't in any pain at all. Had I imagine it all?

"Why did you flinch away from me?" The question was out before I could stop it. I hadn't meant to say it. I didn't want to complicate things, really. But now that it was out there, I couldn't feign ignorance either.

He looked away with a frown and I wished desperately for his smile again. "That was because… The pull to protect you was _overwhelming_ me. It was like supercharged or something when you touched me. I wanted to rip Robin's head off when he sat next to you. I wanted to throw Cyborg out the window in the infirmary. See, I knew they wouldn't hurt you, but I didn't care." He shook his head and his messy hair flew everywhere for a second. I put the rune next to me and grab hold of his head and forced him to look at me.

"You're my guardian." I stated it with such surety that I almost laughed. After a minute of silence where we simply stared into each other's eyes, I did start laughing. Beast Boy hesitated for a moment before joining me. We laughed for what could have been hours.

Finally, my mind began to clear. "It would be selfish of me to keep you all to myself." I said quietly. Without warning Beast Boy tackled and had me pinned to my bed in less than a second. I didn't even have enough time to prepare myself.

"I don't want to undo it, if that's what you're thinking." I was reminded again of a lost puppy. "It's ok now, Rae. I'm ok with this. I've always wanted to be the one to protect you." He dropped his head and laid it on my stomach. "Don't undo it," he whispered.

It was then that I realized that I always wanted Beast Boy to protect me too. Sometimes I was tired of being the one fighting. Sometimes I just wanted someone to protect me. No, not just someone. Beast boy was special to me on levels that none of the others could contend with.

Robin was special but he had priorities I couldn't understand. And there were times when his world would be eons away from mine. Beast Boy was solid. He was dependable. He wouldn't leave me nor find anything more important than me. I watched one of my hands move to pet his dark green hair.

"I'm not going to undo it. I doubt that I can. Runes are old majick." His hands fisted into my sheets at my sides. "I'm honored if you would be my guardian Beast Boy." He turned to look at me with that smile again and I felt something warm explode in my chest and rush through my bloodstream. "What I meant about being selfish is that I doubt we could be apart of the Teen Titans with our situation."

A slight frown disrupted the smile as he slowly moved to hover over me. He didn't seem to be in any hurry to get off my bed. "Yeah. Robin will be pissed." He looked at the floor as he thought that one over. Then he suddenly looked at me, "Would you miss it? Cause if you don't want to leave, I'll figure something out."

The warmth inside me grew warmer and spread to the tips of my fingers and toes. "I'll miss it. But maybe our time is over anyway." I slipped my hand against his face and he leaned into it. "It'll be fine. We can set off somewhere else. Be a team of two. Watch each other." I smiled and it wasn't forced in any way.

Without hesitation Beast Boy kissed my palm and I felt the warmth in my face abruptly. The gesture didn't seem to bother Beast Boy at all. "I'll be the one to tell him. There are so many places I want to take you Raven." He grinned and showed me his fangs, "Just promise me you won't get bored with me." There was a slight glint to his eyes that told me he was worried.

"I would never get bored of you, my guardian." I pushed myself up and hugged him tightly.

"Uh, Rae?"

"Yes?"

"I need to go."

"Why?"

"Just let me change…"

It was like he had burned me. I pushed him off my bed on accident and he rolled into a crouch a moment later. "Sorry," I muttered but he only grinned at me.

"I'll be back, ok?" And then he was gone.

**TheNewAbomination**

I watched Robin and Beast Boy talking outside the green one's sleeping chambers. He said that he and Friend Raven were bonded by some form of "old majick" and that they were no longer capable of being impartial to each other. He told Robin that they were going to leave.

And Robin didn't do anything to stop them.

Robin didn't try to speak to them to reverse their decision. He didn't try to convince them that the two of them were a valuable part of the team. He only stood their listening to the green one then giving them his blessings.

Which was more than what he did for me.

Robin accepted my resignation from the team with far less passion than I had hoped. I had expected him to tell me to stay. To tell me the team needed me. To tell me _he_ needed me. But I'm not needed at all. Not here.

On my planet I would be welcomed home like the royalty I was. I would rule my planet with the justice I learned from this planet. And one day, I would be married to a proper partner who would live by the same justice I lived by. Never again would I be allowed back to Earth. Not for a friendly visit, not for negotiations, not for any reason at all. Robin knew this. I knew he knew. He knew that I knew too.

Yet, he still did nothing to keep me with him. Did I mean so little to him? Had our time together not meant anything either? How could he simply let me leave? How could it be so easy for him?

Now Beast Boy and Friend Raven were leaving. The Titans were falling apart like the old part of Jump City. And Leader Robin was doing nothing to prevent it. Where had the man I once known gone? He told me we would always be together. But we aren't.

I must leave to uphold my duty. Beast Boy and Friend Raven must leave because the bonding would not allow them not to be too enthralled with the other to keep them focused. The Sister of Raven was missing, in the hands on the bad guy too.

The world I made in Earth was slowly being ebbed away like the sand on a beach. Soon there would be nothing left to remind me of the world I made. Not even the friends I have and cherish would be left. They would be off in other worlds with other lives. What else could be done by me? There was no longer a place left for me here. I should not have put all my hope on the man who no longer could feel love for me.

**TheNewAbombination**

The apartment was a complete and total, chaotic mess, like a whirlwind had come in through the window and attack the place. Then a tornado joined the onslaught just for kicks. I stood with my back against a wall and across from me stood Red-X as he nursed his shoulder. The bruises I left it would be ugly for at least a month. In between us was the chaos. The couch was tipped over and there were pieces of broken furniture everywhere.

Both of us were breathing heavily and I wondered where – in the name of _Siber_ – the exit was. I had been able to escape from the man's bedroom, but I was too unfamiliar with Earth's housing layouts. I didn't know which door would lead me where and now I was stuck, with my back to a corner, in the living. There was a TV and a couch and that was similar to the Titan's living room. But I could be wrong.

The second I woke he tried to tell me to lie back down and I couldn't handle that. Having Red-X – the man I swore I was supposed to keep my distance from – tell me to lie back down, it was too much. He shouldn't be the one nursing me. He wasn't supposed to be the one I would wake up to. Granted, I had no idea what any of those things _were_ supposed to be, I only knew that Red-X was not it.

When I saw him in the cavern _playing_ with the doppelganger, something inside me exploded and I wanted nothing more than to have him all to myself. But reason had come back to me since then. There was no possible way that Red-X should have walked out of that cavern with me in his grasp. Raven would've seen too it. She would have rid his head from his shoulders. She would have… wouldn't she?

As we glared at each other, my faith in my little sister was beginning to dim. There were so many other things happening before I passed out, maybe she didn't know what happened to me. Maybe… but I found it highly unlikely. I still had the bleeding cuff on, and they all knew Red-X held the third one. If I wasn't with Raven or Robin, then they _had_ to know who else I would be with.

And that made me worry. What if they thought I _chose _to go with Red-X? I had made it a point for them not to delve too deep into my history; maybe they thought they were doing me a favor. Oh, _Siber_! What a fine mess this had all become.

My arm was stinging in time with my pulse. Damn that doppelganger. His spear hook had done its job to the utmost capability. I had ignored it during the battle and during my tussle with this man. But as we simple stood still, facing each other down, I couldn't stop thinking about it. At least it was the worst of my sores. My back felt terrible but that was how bruising was supposed to feel. I would've been more worried if I had felt great.

Red-X glared at me with a heated passion I did not understand. There was something different about him than all our other confrontations. An animalistic, primitive passion. Like the kind I saw when he went up against the doppelganger. Pure and raw, it was something I doubt I'll ever truly be able to fathom.

Then, without any warning, Red-X brought his hand to the edges of his deformed mask. I didn't have time to prepare myself; suddenly a man was standing in place of a shadow. He had shaggy, black hair damp in sweat. It didn't have so much spike like Robin's did, his looked far more soft and feathery, even wet. His eyes were so dark it was hard to tell what color they were as they glared at me. His skin was a soft tan: natural, but without much sun to it. A strong jaw and high cheekbones, he was far too…_human_ now.

"What are you doing?" I asked without meaning to. He was showing me who he was without any provocation. Why was that making me feel so uneasy? The desire to not be here any more grew into an almost impulse to jump out the window.

"I don't want to wear this all the time. It's just a costume." I glared at him, _just a…_ what was he saying?

"Isn't it apart of who you are?"

"It doesn't matter what I wear, I know who I am." He tossed the mask to the side without seeing where it landed. Then he unclasped his cape and draped it over the upturned couch. Never did he take his eyes off me.

My body was screaming for action now. The pain in my arm was becoming unbearable and I needed a distraction. Also, I wanted to test his theory now. The Titans wore their uniforms twenty-four/seven. Although uniforms had never been apart of my life before I came to Section Seven, in my time with my sister and her team I had learned that uniforms stood for something far greater than one person. A symbol, a uniform was a symbol. What that symbol was, I had yet to understand.

Red-X believed his uniform had no purpose other than what it was: _just a costume_. So was he still the same shadow-man now that he no longer had his costume? I needed to know. I rushed him in an instant and he blocked my first and my second blow. Faster than I could follow he kicked me in the side and sent be back a couple of steps. Well, he hadn't gotten _slower_ by any means.

I faked him out and jabbed him in the ribs twice before he tried to push me back again. I ducked out of his reach and moved in to strike his face. He caught my hand. That was something he hadn't let me know about. I mean, one second he wasn't expecting a thing, in the next he has a death grip around my fingers and hand. How did he do that? I try to get away but he won't let me up. Two more strikes in the ribs, they should be weeping with all the bruises they've received.

Red-X shifts, he's gone. I slowly turn in a circle to find him. A breath against my ear tells me I'm not as smart as I think. Dammit! How does he do it? How is it that _I'm_ struggling to keep up?

"I told you, you need to lie down." Gloved arms wrap around my torso as his face nuzzles against mine. I've never been so close to anyone in such a long time. Never had the idea to be so close to any one been so intriguing before. I'm not a Mother. I don't have an army to lead. I'm only Maeve and this is a man who should belong to the shadows.

The pain in my arm travels to my head and I let out a groan in defeat. "You best me." I state now because I'm not going to state it again, _ever_. Slowly I begin to lean into him. I don't know why. I had never wanted any one but Raven to come close and yet this man creped into my defenses like the shadow he was.

"That hadn't been my intention," he murmurs as if he's going to fall asleep. Sleep doesn't sounds so unappealing to me anymore either. "However, I'll take it humbly." His dark voice promises things I don't understand and I follow him through his trashed home and back into his bedroom that looks a thousand times worst. He leads me to the bed and sits there for a moment longer before he grasps my hand and brings me to lay with him.

**TheNewAbombination**

They aren't just words, it's more than that. Something is trying to tell me something, something very important, but it doesn't use speech and I can't completely make out what it is or what it wants. It gives me images and they are all filled with Maeve. I don't think whatever is communicating to me is bad. Nothing hurts and most of the images are pleasant enough. When I first decided to become Red-X, the first time I met Maeve, bits and pieces of my time in Gotham, seeing Maeve in the bakery, the showdown in the cavern, Maeve in my arms. And these images weren't entirely pictures, they were feelings and sensations. Not all of them were mine though, that was freaky.

The ones with Maeve in them were by far the most pleasant and unsettling. I could feel everything intensified by a billion. An instant before it became too much, I would see something else and feel something else. I couldn't shake it off, even though I knew it wasn't a threat.

More than words came to me, like whispers and like waves. I couldn't tell what anything was saying or what it wanted. I didn't even know what "it" was. I knew it wasn't me though. I knew it was some foreign object or person that _desperately _needed to tell me something – something very, very important. Something as important as life and death; what could it be? What did it want? What was I supposed to do?

So it had to do with Maeve. Ok? Did it think she was going to get hurt? Was she in danger? I couldn't understand. Too many sensations… A woman's hands as they stroked my cheek… A clam voice speaking in a different language that left me in complete peace… _Protect... _Protect…what? Maeve? Was I supposed to protect Maeve?

Another image flooded my senses, Maeve standing across the street from me, but there were no cars and no pedestrians and no Titans around. She was alone on her side of the street as she stared at me with her haunting violet eyes, still as if all her muscles had frozen. _Desperation_…I had to get to her. I wanted to be next to her, to have her against me. But I couldn't go to her, she was the one who needed to make the choice; that's what I told myself when I saw her at the bakery. Yet in this image, I ran to her and held her close. She brought hands up and wrapped them around my neck and it was like we'd never be broken again.

So, you think I need her than badly?

Another image, I'm in Gotham and… Dear Lord! Really? Why'd you have to bring that up? _Batman_? Really, some figment you are, to bring up old wounds like that. I didn't need Batman and he didn't need me. I couldn't be a good guy. I killed the man who murdered my mother and sister. The only mercy I gave him was a quicker death than I wanted. It hadn't been the old man's way, he was so… _Upset…_ yeah, yeah he was. But Batman is no longer a part of my life. What does he have to do with Maeve?

Ah… _Belonging_…

I wanted to stay beside her, but deep down I wanted her to want me more. Yeah, ok, I got it. So, what now? How does it work?

A red ribbon, that's it? That's all you're giving me? A red ribbon attached to my wrist, well that's helpful. It leads off into no where too… Do you want me to follow it? I do, in whatever kind of state I'm in I do follow the red ribbon. It seems to take forever there are times when I just want to quit and times I just want to run in the other direction. But I don't do anything but follow the ribbon.

Soon, I see her. A small circle of light envelopes her and I want nothing more than to settle in that light with her forever. The ribbon ends at her wrist and a grasp her hand tightly. I feel something tight inside my chest, like something is trying to escape from it. Not creepy like in that movie _Alien_, but something else. Not a monster or something evil. What is this feeling? I don't understand? I want to be with her. I want to stay with her. Is this more than that?

Maeve puts her free hand on my chest, right over my heart, where the feeling is coming from. "Will you stay with me?" she asks and I'm not sure how to answer. Is this real? Is she really asking this of me? I don't say anything out of fear. Yeah, I'm afraid of this woman. She could crush me completely without having to lift a finger.

An animal walks toward us and I push her behind me, the animal…it's wolf-like…it nods at me. It. Nods. At. Me… I look back at Maeve behind me. Ok, so I'm getting closer. Another wolf-like animal appears behind the first. Like a mirror? The wolf nods again. Ok, getting warmer.

"I'm to protect her, like you?" It nods. "Like her guardian angel or something?" It sighs as if it's getting sick of me. "Ok, I am a guardian." I say sure as anything else of my being. The wolf stares at me with hard eyes. I think I finally understand, until the wolf attacks me.

I stand as tall as and strong as I can to absorb most of the blow. I'm on my back an instant later, as if the dream can't be bothered to show me how I got there. Maeve is leaning over me, there's blood all over her, but it's not hers. I know it's the wolf's. I killed it. To protect Maeve I killed it. I hope that's the right answer.

Something is pulling away from me, something warm and soft. Parts of reality begin filtering back to me slowly, until I realize the something was Maeve. "Leaving so soon?" I try to sound cool, calm, and not at all freaked out by whatever just happened to me. I sound like I'm about to either laugh or cry, so I guess I needed to try harder.

"A shower." Not… Leaving? I can't begin to understand how relieved I am. I get up slowly and stare at her for a long time. She looks so beautiful with her cheeks flushed that way.

I'm sore mostly on my left but I manage to stand fluidly enough and move around the bed, "Through that door. There are towels under the sink." I eye her bloodied and tattered uniform, "I'll get you something to change into and wash that if you like?" She stares at herself with a mild frown before she shrugs. "Alright."

I watch her move into the bathroom and have to keep myself from following her. It's not like I'll die if I'm not in the same room with her. She's capable of taking care of herself too. I know what happened in my head wasn't just in my head. Something supernatural happened; somehow the two of us were linked in some cosmic way I could never understand. But I didn't have to understand. I knew where I was in the cosmos. I was her guardian, and she was mine.

**Alright, so I know I have some readers out there. What do you think? I thought I was going to end it here, but now I want an epilogue because this kind of ending just seems unsatisfactory. What do you think? Let me know! I have to know!**


	11. How Long Is Forever

**So here is the epilogue. This is my first story on fanfiction and I want to thank all who read, reviewed, and/or acknowledged this piece in any way, shape, or form. I have other stories but this may be the only one I ever do for Teen Titans. Please look into my other stories, please drop me a message if you want to, please have a great day!**

**Oh, and enjoy! **

**HowLongisForever**

"You're leaving too?" Robin asked quietly as Starfire's ship disappeared, the ship to take her to her home planet and away from all of us. I hadn't mentioned my resignation yet. Maybe he was being sarcastic. I knew this had to be harder on him than any of us. Robin founded the Titans. He made us all what we were today. Starfire's leaving must have been like a knife to the back to the guy.

Now Starfire's gone to her own planet, Raven and BB are going off somewhere in South America, and me… I'm going to join up with another team altogether. Maybe I shouldn't leave him. Maybe Robin needed us more than we ever needed him. Had I just realized this?

But I couldn't do that to Bee. I needed her. If I wanted to make things work, I had be willing to move the continent to do it. So I said, "Actually, yeah." I tried to make it sound as simple as I thought it was. But after a couple of seconds of watching the man's shoulders tense after every word I said, I knew there was no way to sugarcoat this. I was leaving him and he knew it.

"Sorry, man." I said after I had nothing more to say. Robin hadn't said a thing. He let me explain myself; let me ramble a little too. All I had was his back on me and his tense shoulders.

"It's ok." He began walking toward the Tower's roof door and I felt a twinge of guilt run through my circuits. Man, I hate feeling guilty. I can't do anything for him and I know he's hurting bad too.

"Is it?" He stops and turns to look back at me with narrowed eyes. Oh yeah, he's pissed.

"What do you mean? You're an adult, do whatever you want."

"Is that really ok with you? I mean, Star just took off. Beast Boy and Raven are splitting because they can't keep their feelings mutual anymore. Now I'm telling you I'm going to leave too. Doesn't that piss you off? Don't you feel betrayed?" I didn't realize I was gasping for air. Who was really the one angry here?

"Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven can help what happened. Starfire was always destined to leave. She had a duty bigger than the Titans. Beast Boy was going to go eventually too, I could feel it." He looked off towards the ocean, his back to the city. "I'm just glad he's not going alone. They'll take care of each other, he and Raven." He grew quiet as he turned to face me completely. Before I could say anything his voice turned cold, "You want to live your life with the woman you love. How can I blame any of you for what's happened to the team?

"People come and people go, Cy. I'm not about to curse faith for the hand I've been dealt with. I can take care of Jump City alone. I'm still the Leader of the Teen Titans. There are Titans all over the world who are looking for me to lead them." I watched as the fury left him an instant later, like someone blew out his candle or something. Guilt raked havoc on me and I was close to breaking my resolve. Until Robin looked at me with dark, hard eyes, "I'll be fine. I'll survive." Then he left, his long cape billowed around his calves and ankles.

Something inside Robin snapped, I think. I'm not sure what happened exactly, I only know that the man who left me on the roof that day was no long the man I had come to known so closely. He became someone else, someone who could _survive._

But that wasn't the same as the man who _lived_.

**HowLongisForever**

White gold bells chimed in the middle of the Great City's square. Thousands and thousands of my people have come to give me the blessed wishes for my happy day. And oh what a happy day this is! I am to marry the prince of the Lands Far South! Such a unity will bring great honor and prosperity to our lands. Swiftriver is very pleased with our arrangement as well. He believes in a lasting peace as much as I do, and my nanny is very pleased with my choice in suitor.

Swiftriver is pleasant and charming; he is a Royal and understands sacrifice and honor. A proud Tameranean prince who speaks the same tongue I do, he is also very diverse in his knowledge of the sections. He enjoys my stories of my time on the Seventh Section.

I could not ask for a better match, nor could I have ever hoped for one. It has been a Seventh's year since I left my friends, I do not miss them as much I thought I would. My life belongs on my planet with my people. I am to become the next Royal heir to my planet. Swiftriver is to stand at my side and rule in this moment of peace.

It is odd how much I adore peace. My people are excellent in the art of war, and I was of great use in my time as a Titan. But the idea of there never being a villain around every corner is far more appealing than I would have thought so. I am able to sleep without interruptions. There is no conspiracy or threat to the world. There is no Slade, no Hive Five, no bank robberies, no heists, no manhunts.

This is where I am meant to be.

I didn't invite my friends to the wedding. Swiftriver said he would allow those of the Seventh in our section, but I forbade it. I don't want to see their faces again. I like where I am. I like my life the way it is. I don't want to have them come in and change everything for me again.

I am happy. This is a happy day.

**HowLongisForever**.

The streets are dark and full of deadbeats, homeless, unfortunate souls scrounging for a meal as if they were nothing more than animals. This once glistening Jump City has become a beacon for the lost and deprave. Those who could not take the in flux of refugees fled and left the city to those who know of nothing but ruin.

Villains thrive in a city like this one. Evil is like the plague, it'll latch on to a flea who will latch onto a rat who will latch onto a human, and the human dies from it. I've seen this cycle before, so many times. But there is a vaccine for this plague. I am their salvation, their beacon of hope. Here in this crumbling city, I keep those who seek the light safe from harm.

And there is so much harm in this place. Old Jump spread its decaying corpse will wildfire, until the whole city choke within its grasp. But the city is not dead, and neither am I.

Three years since my team broke apart, and I am the only one left to defend the once bright Jump City. I had never worked solo before, but if Batman could do it, then so could I. After I confirmed Maeve's whereabouts, I took a few weeks to see my old mentor. It was good to see him, to see how he'd change and how he hadn't changed at all. I got to meet his new Boy Wonder too. Tim's not a bad kid, really looks up to the old man too. But I think he's too young, too innocent to really know what he's doing. I hope the kid doesn't get hurt.

Batman let me go, knowing full well that I was going to protect Jump City all on my own. He wasn't too thrilled about it, but he let me go nonetheless. Maybe he finally can see me as a hero and not some punk kid with no parents trying to please some old man. Or maybe he just doesn't care what I do with my life.

I went to Jump City mostly because it was the farthest place from Gotham. On the other side of the continent I could get away from Batman breathing down my neck. It was selfish and unfair to all the other cities that need a hero, but I was so reckless at the time I didn't care.

Now I will never leave this place. No matter where my friends go, I will always be here. They know where to find me; they know how to reach me. None of them have, of course. The occasional postcard from Beast Boy and Raven, Cyborg will page me when he has the time, but it's like that part of our life is no longer available to us.

Surprisingly the one I see the most is Maeve. She comes in from time to time to make sure I'm still alive and healthy to "save the world." Sometimes Red-X shows up with her, though he never says anything to me. She's changed him I think. Given his life some kind of purpose he never had before.

It isn't so bad being alone. I've come to appreciate the few times to speak with my friends, but I've grown used to not having to look out for anyone. It's me with my back to wall against ten thugs with no future, and I thrive in this kind of world. Surviving has become my own personal motto. I don't need the others as much as I thought I would.

Just me with my back against the wall against a pack of thugs with no future. Surviving is my motto.

As Nightwing, I will survive.

**HowLongisForever**

"Maeve sent us another letter! Though I have no idea where it's from." Raven calls to me from the kitchen. She's been trying so hard to be so helpful. She cleans and she tries to cook now that we are living together. Raven never was much of a meateater before we left Jump City, now she's as much a vegetarian as I am.

The little things we do…

"What does she say?" I call from my perch on the window ledge right behind her. She doesn't jump or scream anymore, but I can see her freeze and goose bumps crawl across her skin. Her cloak is no longer an everyday wear for her anymore. Only when we do "hero-stuff" does she wear her black dress and blue cloak. Right now she wears a dark blue summer dress.

I think she does it to make me happy, which makes me _very_ happy.

"She's doing 'well,' mentions a little something about Red-X but she's always so vague in her letters."

I nod and grab a slice of the apple she had been cutting before the mail came. "I heard she visited Robin – I mean 'Nightwing' – a couple months ago." I comment between bites. "So she can't be any where near Jump City right now."

"Yeah, I wish she would at least give me more than she is though." I love it when she frowns sometimes. Not at me, of course, but when she looks at nothing particular and frowns at her own thoughts.

"I'm sure she's be fine," I say because I know it's what she wants to hear. It's the truth, of course. We both know it. Maeve never excelled in anything like she did in playing Robin Hood. After she disappeared for four months with Red-X, she came back to Jump City to pronounce her new career: Stealing from the rich to help the needy. I could see it in the way her violet eyes lit up, she was joyful for the first time in her life.

Red-X even made an appearance to confirm in his part of her enlightenment. He didn't need to say that Maeve completely changed the vigilante, we could all tell just from looking at him. He truly loved Maeve. After Raven read into his emotions, she told me my assumption had been right. So, Red-X and Maeve had organized some kind of two-man con game that helped the little man and took down "The Man."

The decision fit well with me. Robin – Nightwing – wasn't too happy about it. But nothing seemed to make him happy these days. The guy went off the deep end and none of us could follow him. His devotion to justice was a bit of an obsession in my opinion. But since Rae and I live in Georgia, it really isn't our problem anymore. Well, for now we're in Georgia, the other week we were in Brazil, last month we were in Alaska. I thought it would be nice if Rae and I took some time off from our traveling.

All we wanted was to live by ourselves with each other for as long as we possibly could. It was a great life. Waking up to a sleeping Rae every morning, no blaring alarms in the middle of the night, no death threats every Saturday afternoon, no more fighting. It was everything I knew Raven truly wanted. As much as the Titans meant to us, we really both just wanted each other more. I would have made this decision a million times over.

"It's been awhile since she visited us." Raven says quietly as she finishes cutting the apple.

"She can take care of herself. She blends in better than Starfire did, and Maeve's been here way shorter than that." I climb off my perch and stand next to her with my hands on her shoulders. "Besides, we move around so much I'm surprised she always knows where our address is. It's like she knows before we do."

That gets a smile from her, "That's true. She says it's 'cause she's my big sister. But I'm not sure how she does it. I have no idea where she and Red-X are." I clear my throat. "Ah, right, Red Hood, I mean." She grins with teeth showing and I want to hold her so close my arms begin to ach. But Raven never was much for the touchy-feely stuff. Little things like holding hands and a small touch now and then is all she needs to feel better.

For me though, it's like I always want more.

"Yeah, Red Hood. It's weird that they picked the same name for themselves." I say instead of holding on to her like a drowning cat.

"Maeve told me it's their idea more than anything; it's not black or white. What they do isn't even considered grey in her mind. So their small organization is the Red Hood. All of their members are called that. No one man is greater than the rest." She bites into a slice of the apple and hands me another. I bite into it from her hand and she laughs.

"Like I said, she'll be fine." When the apple is finished I rub the side of my face against her neck. She ruffles my long green hair and only laughs at me.

There is nothing else in the world I would trade for this life I decided to share with Raven.

**HowLongisForever**

I didn't know I was capable of the act of _giggling_ until X began dealing with the art of torture he calls "tickling." It is cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion. But he thinks it is so much fun to see me writhe in discomfort, laughing and _giggling_ until tears stream down my cheeks. I don't recall ever having the ability to cry either. This man can do so many diabolical things to me. It isn't natural. It isn't fair.

For reasons that astound me however, I find that I can never leave him. He is now, and forevermore a part of my life. I breathe him in, I taste him, I only see with him, I live with him. It is such an amazing feeling he alone can give me. Such security I can find only in him, a security I will never understand for the life of me. Never in all my years has the need for such security ever occurred to me. But X assures me it is more than a need, it is apart of my very existence. Sometimes I beg to differ in his opinions of life, but who am I to dismiss the comfort his being provides?

Our jobs are to steal from those who steal for no other reason but to gain for themselves. I never found such fulfillment in other part of the entire galaxy. In all the sections, there was never a place for someone of my origin, of my talents, of my existence. On Earth, my home, I have come to an understanding with my place on this lone planet.

Standing next to X while we steal from the rich and give to the poor.

X has told me of the tales of Robin Hood, a man I chose to live my life after. Although his first name is a bit of a disappointment, the ideas this legend stood for with body, mind, and soul was what I also give my breathe to defend and honor.

It took more convincing on X's part to follow me. But nobody made him do anything he didn't want to do. I didn't ask anything of him. He chose to follow me.

Which brings me back to his favorite form of torture of me. X's resolve and reputation of being a man who lived for himself was shattered by his own hand. Yet night after night, he claims it is my fault and my feminine "willies." What are "willies" anyway!

"X! Please, for the mercy of _Siber_, stop!" I gasp with such shame, who am I to gasp and beg? Our spacious hotel room is pre-paid for by the no good politician who embezzled money from his own staff. (I give my thanks to the poor sap.) The polished floor is cold under my back as I lay stretched out and squirming from X's devilish fingers. He no longer wears a mask, he stares at me with more joy than the man deserves at the sight of my pleading. His long, shaggy, mess of ebony hair his close to touching my face as he hovers of me to not miss a single moment of my agony.

"Say it." He demands in a dark voice that is far too teasing for the situation. After a job goes well for the Red Hood, X has begun this ridiculous game! I refuse to play! I can never win this game. X has no "ticklish spots." He is completely immune to the rules of this game. It isn't fair!

"You'll have to kill me first." I bite back. I refuse to play his game. I can't tickle him, since it has no affect on him, but there are other ways I've learned to submit this shadow-man to me. It took a whole year until I learned the secrets of seduction, but now I am no amateur to such handiwork.

Very slowly so that he doesn't notice – and as perceptive as he is, it's a _very _hard thing to do – I slip my bare foot up against his leg. The touch is so light he only thinks he imagining what I'm doing, after all it's near impossible for me to think a tangible thought with his wicked fingers tickling me. With my back arched and a well-placed moan of frustration that isn't too hard to conjure, I see his eyes falter in his intentions.

How easy it is to distract him! For as long as we've traveled and thieved together, I have always known and nurtured this weakness of his. X cannot think pure thoughts when he is my presence for an extended period of time. I feed this impulse of his with willingness and good-naturedly. The man will not leave me, I will not leave him, and our feelings for the other grew without either of us in terror of it.

Of course, for the first year I refused to allow such thoughts and feelings inside me. But as X later taught me, I cannot control the way I feel. Much to my chagrin, the way I feel for X is a living, breathing part of me that refuses reason and thought. As compulsive and manipulative as my nature is, on Earth it's as if the physics of my emotions are completely opposite of what they were in the other sections.

The only familiarity of my impulsive emotions is from my time in the Fifth, as wild and crazed as Fresca was. I believe it is with this background behind me I am able to cope and adapt to the whirlwind of feelings X alone can conjure.

And his bloody ego knows it all too well.

"Maeve." He growls in a warning. Once things start it's difficult to stop, as most things are when it comes to X. I only smile as sweetly as I can; he grows suddenly more suspicious. "Are you sure you want to start this?"

"Are you sure you're done asking questions?" I retort with my smile slipping and becoming the wicked grin he knows all too well. I sit up quickly before he can bicker at me and catch his lips in a fierce kiss.

I pity the Mothers of the Rokakas. They will never know what it is like to be desired. They will never share moments such as this, where the world melts away and all that's left is the two of you. The Mothers will never understand the need to have that one person by their side for the rest of their lives.

To think, not so very long ago I had been in the mindset that I would never have experienced such wonderful excitement. There is he and me and nothing else in the world at this one moment. True enough we will return to a world of greedy power-hungry dogs preying upon the meek and lost. But we will go there together.

Sometimes I feel as if the real world is a fictitious dimension and the warm moments alone with X are my reality. Perhaps it is. Perhaps I'm slowly losing my mind.

All that truly matters is that those who I cherish are safe, the world will become a better place because of me, and a man I have always wanted and now definitely need is going to stay with me for the rest of time.

I am Maeve, former Rokakas, former Teen Titan, an alien to the Seventh Section, a ragged thief and murderer, a woman who fell desperately in love with a shadow.


End file.
